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)«8||  HEALTH  SCIENCES  STANDARD 


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HEALTHY   LIVING 

BOOK    ONE 


HOW  CHILDREN  CAN  GROW  STRONG 
FOR    THEIR     COUNTRY'S     SERVICE 


BY 
CHARLES-EDWARD  AMORY  WINSLOW,  D.  P.  H. 

PROFESSOR  OF  PUBLIC  HEALTH,  YALE  MEDICAL  SCHOOL,  AND  CURATOR 
OF  PUBLIC  HEALTH,  AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF    NATURAL  HISTORY 


CHARLES  E.  MERRILL  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK  AND  CHICAGO 


Copyright,  1918, 

BY 

CHARLES  E.  MERRILL  CO. 
12J 


•      TO  THE  CHILDREN  WHO  MAY  USE  THIS  BOOK 

When  I  was  asked  to  write  a  book  for  you  about  the  wonders 
of  the  human  body  and  the  things  we  can  do  to  keep  that  body 
strong  and  well,  it  seemed  at  first  that  I  must  refuse,  for,  like 
every  one  else,  I  am  very  busy  in  this  war  time.  Gradually, 
however,  on  thinking  the  matter  over  I  decided  that  there  was 
really  nothing  at  all  that  could  be  more  important  to  do  than 
this.  We  who  are  working  in  our  laboratories  studying  about 
the  human  body  and  its  microbe  enemies  are  doing  it  because  we 
want  to  help  people  to  live  healthier,  happier,  and  more  efficient 
lives.  How  can  we  be  of  any  use,  however,  unless  we  tell  every 
one  what  we  are  finding  out,  and,  particularly,  unless  we  tell 

V  it  to  you  children  who  will  soon  grow  up  to  be  men  and  women 

^  and  run  this  United  States  of  ours,  and  yours? 

The  more  I  thought  about  it  all,  the  more  interested  I  became. 

^il  often  speak  face  to  face  to  classes  of  school  children  about 
pubhc  health;  but  during  the  last  few  months  I  have  been 
traveling  a  good  deal  on  sanitary  work  connected  with  the  war, 
and  have  been  thinking  about  a  much  larger  audience  than  could 
be  gathered  in  the  largest  room  in  the  world.  I  have  crossed 
the  whole  of  Asia  and  a  good  part  of  Europe,  and  I  have  seen 
the  boys  and  girls  of  Russia  and  Siberia,  and  the  boys  and  girls 
vj  of  China  and  Korea,  and  the  boys  and  girls  of  Japan  with  their 
merry  smiles  and  their  gay  dresses.  I  have  learned  that  the  great 
need  in  all  these  countries  is  for  more  schools  and  better  schools; 
and  I  have  realized  more  than  ever  how  much  the  great  school- 
houses  in  our  cities  really  mean,  and  the  little  schoolhouses,  too, 

-    out  on  the  ranges  of  Montana  and  among  the  rich  cornfields 

(>  of  Indiana  and  in  the  pitch  pine  forests  of  Florida.    I  finally 

decided  that  nothing  could  possibly  be  better  worth  while  than 

to  talk  through  this  Httle  book  with  so  many  children  whom  I 

3 


4     TO  THE  CHILDREN  WHO  MAY  USE  THIS  BOOK 

have  never  seen  and  shall  never  see  and  to  tell  them  something 
about  health. 

So  I  have  tried  to  describe  to  you  how  the  human  body  is 
built  and  how  it  works.  I  have  told  you  something  about  our 
invisible  enemies,  the  microbes,  which  we  must  know  how  to 
fight,  as  our  forefathers  fought  the  wild  beasts  when  they  settled 
this  great  country.  Health  means,  first  of  all,  running  the 
living  machine,  the  body,  so  as  to  keep  it  in  good  working  order; 
and,  second,  guarding  it  against  the  attacks  of  these  enemies 
that  may  come  in  to  harm  it  from  without. 

I  have  been  anxious  to  make  you  feel  the  wonder  and  the  in- 
terest of  this  body  of  ours,  for  it  is  really  one  of  the  most  wonder- 
ful and  interesting  things  in  the  whole  world.  Some  of  the  prin- 
cipal points  which  we  ought  to  remember  about  keeping  the  body 
well  are  illustrated  by  stories,  for  there  is  nothing  that  children, 
and  some  of  us  grown  people  too,  like  so  much  as  a  story. 
Finally,  I  have  emphasized  all  through  this  book  the  fact  that 
we  ought  to  try  to  be  strong  and  well,  not  for  our  own  sakes 
but  because  we  are  citizens  of  a  great  country  which  needs  our 
best  service.  Loyalty  to  the  common  tasks  of  the  American 
Democracy  is  the  first  and  the  foremost  lesson  which  our  schools 
must  teach ;  and  strength  for  service — strength  physical,  strength 
intellectual,  strength  of  character  and  purpose— is  the  founda- 
tion of  that  loyalty. 

Thanks  are  due  to  my  daughter,  Nancy,  aged  ten  years,  for 
reading  the  manuscript  of  this  book  and  criticising  it  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  children  who  may  use  it.  If  the  book  suc- 
ceeds in  interesting  you  and  in  helping  you  to  keep  yourselves  in 
sounder  and  more  vigorous  health,  I  shall  be  very  grateful  for 
the  chance  of  telling  this  story  of  the  human  body  and  how 
to  keep  it  well. 

C.-E.  A.  WINSLOW. 
New  Haven,  Connecticut, 

May,  1918. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The  author  wishes  to  make  grateful  acknowledgment  to  the 
American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  New  York,  for  permis- 
sion to  reproduce  Figures  65  and  67;  to  the  American  Posture 
League  for  Figure  15;  to  the  Boy  Scouts  of  America  for  Figures 
75,  78,  and  79;  to  the  New  York  City  Health  Department  for 
Figures  63,  64,  73,  and  80;  to  the  New  York  City  Board  of  Water 
Supply  for  Figure  76;  to  Mr.  W.  Lyman  Underwood  of  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  for  Figures  69  and  70; 
and  to  the  National  Association  for  the  Study  and  Prevention 
of  Tuberculosis  for  Figures  77  and  82. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  A  Well-Spent  Day 9 

II.  Your  Wonderful  Body 20 

III.  The  Framework  of  the  Body 31 

IV.  How  the  Parts  of  Our  Body  Move 44 

V.  The  Telephone  System  of  the  Body 56 

VI.  How  We  Learn  About  the  World  Outside  ....     70 

VII.  Fuel  for  the  Body 81 

VIII.  What  Happens  to  the  Food  in  the  Body 91 

IX.  Keeping  the  Teeth  in  Good  Condition 99 

X.  Breathing no 

XI.  The  Circulation  of  the  Blood 121 

XII.  Keeping  the  Skin  Healthy 132 

XIII.  Freedom  from  Bad  Habits 143 

XIV.  Our  Unseen  Enemies 156 

XV.  Cleanliness  and  Health 168 

XVI.  Some  Undesirable  Neighbors 179 

XVII.  Stopping  the  Spread  of  Germ  Disease 194 

XVIII.  The  Army  of  Health 202 

XIX.  Some  Rules  for  Health 214 

Index 229 


HEALTHY  LIVING 

CHAPTER  I 
A  WELL-SPENT  DAY 

How  a  Boy  Became  a  Knight. — Five  hundred  years 
ago,  in  England  and  France  and  the  other  principal 
countries  of  Europe,  the  leaders  of  the  people  were  a 
special  class  of  men  called  knights.  A  knight  had  to 
be  a  soldier,  absolutely  free  from  fear.  He  must  always 
be  true  to  his  king  and  his  country  and  his  friends.  He 
must  be  generous  and  ready  to  give  away  anything  he 
had  to  those  in  need.  He  must  always  be  modest  and 
courteous  in  his  manner  and  thoughtful  of  the  feelings 
of  others.  So  people  came  to  feel  that  there  was  nothing 
nobler  in  the  world  than  to  be  ^^ a  good  knight." 

It  was  not  easy  to  become  a  knight.  The  boy  who 
desired  this  great  honor  went  through  a  long  period  of 
training.  It  began  when  he  was  seven  or  eight  years 
old.  He  waited  on,  and  helped,  the  older  people  in  the 
household,  and  was  trained  there  in  courtesy  and  gentle- 
ness. As  years  went  on,  he  learned  how  to  carry  him- 
self like  a  soldier  and  how  to  use  the  spear  and  the 
sword,  with  which  men  fought  in  those  days.  He 
learned  to  ride  and  swim  and  climb  and  jump,  and  he 
trained  himself  to  bear  the  heavy  weight  of  the  suits  of 
armor  which  the  knights  wore  in  battle.  As  he  grew 
older,  he  learned  to  endure  heat  and  cold  and  to  go  for 


lO 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


a  time  without  food  or  sleep,  so  that  he  might  be  strong 
to  bear  the  hardships  of  the  Hfe  of  a  soldier.    At  last, 


Fig.  I. — How  a  boy  of  the  olden  time  was  made  a  knight. 

after  perhaps  fifteen  years  of  this  training,  he  was 
brought  before  the  king  of  the  country,  and  as  he 
kneeled  down  the  king  touched  him  on  the  shoulder 
with  his  sword  and  made  him  a  knight. 


A  WELL- SPENT  DAY  ir 

We  do  not  have  knights  of  this  kind  in  America 
to-day^  but  we  want  boys  and  girls  who  will  serve  our 
country  as  faithfully  as  the  knights  of  old-time  served 
their  king.  We  honor  men  and  women  who  are  brave 
and  loyal,  generous  and  gentle — just  as  they  did  five 
hundred  years  ago.  It  is  just  as  true  as  it  was  then  that 
girls  and  boys  cannot  grow  up  to  be  good  citizens  and 
faithful  servants  of  their  country,  unless  they  train 
themselves  to  be  strong,  as  well  as  to  be  brave  and  true 
and  kind. 

Perhaps  you  have  thought  that  people  just  happen 
to  be  well  or  ill,  strong  or  weak,  and  that  there  is  nothing 
you  can  do  about  it.  That  is  not  true,  for  health  and 
strength  come  largely  from  habits  of  healthy  living. 
In  order  to  form  such  habits,  you  must  know  some- 
thing about  your  body  and  how  it  works  and  what  you 
can  do  to  make  it  stronger.  In  later  chapters  I  shall 
tell  you  more  about  the  body  and  the  reasons  why 
some  habits  are  good  and  others  bad.  There  are  some 
things,  however,  that  we  all  know  about,  though  we 
may  not  always  remember  to  do  them.  Let'us  see  what 
a  few  of  these  things  are,  and  how  a  boy  or  a  girl  can 
spend  a  day — say  to-morrow,  the  day  after  studying 
this  chapter — so  as  to  build  up  strength  and  health  for 
the  knightly  service  of  our  country. 

Getting  Ready  for  the  Day. — First  of  all,  the  boy  who 
wants  to  be  a  good  knight  and  the  girl  who  is  eager  to 
grow  up  into  a  strong,  helpful  woman  will  not,  of  course, 
linger  in  bed  when  the  time  for  getting  up  has  come. 
In  winter  it  is  not  easy  to  step  out  of  the  warm  bed- 


12 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


clothes  into  the  cold  world,  but  if  you  set  your  teeth 
you  can  do  it  just  the  same.  Then  the  body  should  be 
made  ready  for  the  work  of  the  day  by  a  cold  bath  and 
a  brisk  rubdown  with  a  rough  towel.  Just  why  this  is 
healthful,  and  how  a  cold  bath  helps  you  to  feel  fit  and 
strong,  we  shall  learn  in  later  chapters.     Often  one 

has  to  do  what  one  is  told 
quickly  and  without  asking 
the  reason;  but  it  is  much 
nicer  to  know  the  reasons  for 
things  and  really  understand 
why  they  are  good.  The 
teeth  must  be  thoroughly 
brushed,  and  the  face  and 
hands  washed,  so  as  to  be  clean 
and  fresh  for  the  new  day. 
There  are  some  interesting 
reasons  for  this,  too,  which 
you  will  learn  later,  for  we 
do  not  try  to  keep  clean  sim- 
ply because*  dirt  does  not  look  well. 

Morning  Exercises. — The  arms  and  the  legs  that  are 
so  active  in  the  daytime  have  been  limp  and  quiet 
during  the  night's  rest.  It  is  an  excellent  plan  to  get 
them  into  good  working  order  by  a  few  simple  exercises, 
which  will  be  described  in  a  later  chapter.  If  you  do 
these  exercises  every  morning,  and  breathe  slowly  and 
deeply  while  you  are  doing  them,  not  only  your  arms 
and  legs  but  a  great  many  other  parts  of  that  com- 
plicated and  wonderful  body  of  yours  will  be  helped 


Fig. 


2. 


Health  habits: 
morning  exercises. 


brisk 


A  WELL  SPENT  DAY 


^3 


and  strengthened.  You  will  find,  if  you  do  this,  that 
you  will  gro^v  stronger  all  the  time,  and  better  able  to 
play  games  and  run  and  jump  and  climb ;  and  you  will 
find  yourself  happier  and  more  full  of  life  and  energy  in 
everything  you  do. 

After  you  have  put  on  your  clothes  and  are  ready  to 
go  to  breakfast,  stop  for  a  minute  and  think  whether 
you  are  holding  your  body 
proudly  and  well,  or  whether 
you  are  slouching.  See  that 
your  head  is  up,  your  shoulders 
flat,  your  knees  straight,  your 
feet  set  squarely  on  the  ground, 
before  you  set  out  for  your 
day's  work. 

Mealtimes. — WTiich  meal  in 
the  day  do  you  like  best?  I 
think  breakfast  is  perhaps  the 
pleasantest.    It  is  early  mom-    Fig.  3. -Health  habits:  hearty 

J  . -1  •  •      r       1  and  wholesome  meals. 

mg   and   everything    is  fresh 

and  bright  and  one  is  almost  always  hungry  then,  par- 
ticularly if  one  has  had  a  bath  and  vigorous  exercises. 

Sometimes  a  child,  who  is  not  trying  to  grow  to  be 
a  strong  man  or  woman,  lies  in  bed  so  long  and  is  so 
slow  in  dressing  that  there  is  no  time  for  breakfast,  and 
he  just  snatches  a  mouthful  or  two  before  running  off  to 
school.  This  is  a  very  bad  plan  indeed,  for  soon  that 
child  will  begin  to  have  an  empty  feeling  inside;  he 
will  become  cross  and  fretful  and  will  be  stupid  in 
school  work  and  dull  at  play.    Remember  that  the  body 


14     *  HEALTHY  LIVING 

needs  plenty  of  food,  and  no  child  can  be  of  very  much 
use  to  himself  or  anyone  else  unless  he  has  started  off 
in  the  morning  with  a  good  breakfast. 

Most  children  need  a  little  lunch  in  the  middle  of 
the  morning,  for  it  is  a  long  time  between  breakfast 
and  luncheon  or  dinner  time.  So  it  is  a  good  plan  to 
take  with  you  some  bread  and  butter  or  crackers  or 
cookies  to  eat  about  eleven  o'clock. 

You  will  read  later  in  this  book  about  the  foods  that 
make  up  a  good  diet  for  a  boy  or  girl  of  your  age.  For 
breakfast  you  should  have  fruit,  cereal,  bread  and  but- 
ter, and  milk,  or  other  foods  equally  good.  A  little 
meat  or  fish  or  eggs  should  be  eaten  sometime  during 
the  day,  if  possible;  but  plenty  of  milk  will  do  instead, 
if  these  things  are  too  expensive.  Green  vegetables 
or  fruit  should  form  a  part  of  each  of  the  three  meals. 
You  will  learn  later  what  each  of  these  kinds  of  food 
does  for  the  body  and  why  you  need  them  all. 

The  boys  who  were  training  themselves  to  be  knights 
in  olden  days  sometimes  used  to  go  without  any  food 
for  a  time,  to  make  themselves  hardy.  It  is  good  to 
be  brave  about  being  hungry,  but  it  is  not  worth  while 
to  injure  one's  health  by  going  without  food  just  for 
this  purpose.  There  is  another  kind  of  training,  how- 
ever, which  some  children  I  know  need  very  much. 
These  children  go  without  food  of  certain  kinds,  not 
to  make  themselves  hardy  but  just  because  they  don't 
like  chicken  or  carrots  or  spinach  or  whatever  the  food 
may  be.  Often  the  foods  they  will  not  eat  are  just  the 
ones  they  need  to  strengthen  their  bodies  and  make 


A  WELL -SPENT  DAY 


15 


them  grow.  Such  children  should  make  it  a  part  of 
their  knightly  training  to  conquer  their  dislikes  and  to 
learn  to  eat  all  the  good  kinds  of  food  that  are  set  be- 
fore them. 

Dressing  to  Go  Out. — ^After  breakfast  is  finished, 
there  is  often  a  hurry  and  a  scurry  to  get  off  to  school. 
The    house    is    full    of    cries 
of,   ^^  Mother,   where  are  my 
gloves?"  and  ''Mother,  I  can't 
find  my  coat." 

It  pays  to  take  time  to  find 
the  clothes  you  need  before 
you  go  out  into  the  chilly  air, 
if  it  is  winter  time  or  there  is 
a  storm.  It  may  be  a  bother 
to  hunt  for  your  things.  But 
remember  that  you  cannot  ex- 
pect your  body  to  keep  fit  and 
well,  if  you  do  not  take  care  of 
it.  Dressing  too  warmly  is 
bad;  but  wearing  coats,  warm  caps,  overshoes,  mittens, 
and  leggings,  when  the  weather  is  such  that  you  need 
them,  is  not  a  sign  of  being  babyish  but  a  sign  of  being 
sensible  and  grown  up. 

Don't  forget,  however,  to  take  off  coats,  leggings, 
and  mufflers  when  you  go  indoors  where  it  is  warm. 
Rubbers  are  very  bad  for  the  feet,  if  you  forget  and  keep 
them  on  all  day,  as  some  children  do  that  I  know  about. 

Schooltime. — ^The  different  parts  of  the  body  are  like 
faithful  servants  who  do  our  work  for  us  most  of  the 


Fig.  4. — ^Health  habits:  clothes 
to  suit  the  weather. 


i6 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


time,  even  without  our  having  to  think  about  it  at 
aU.  Some  of  these  parts,  as  we  shall  see,  are  busy  all 
day  and  all  night.  Others  are  set  to  work  only  now 
and  then  when  we  happen  to  need  them. 

At  school  and  in  home-study  time  we  call  upon  our 
very  highest  servants  to  help  us.    They  are  the  parts 

making  up  the  brain,  with 
which  we  do  our  learning 
and  understanding.  You  can 
make  these  servants  either 
good  or  bad  by  training  them. 
If  you  idle  your  time  away 
and  look  out  of  the  window 
and  whisper  and  giggle,  your 
brain  servants  will  get  the 
habit  of  idleness  and  inatten- 
tion. If  you  are  trying  to 
make  yourself  a  good  knightly 
citizen,  you  will  make  your 
brain  ser^^ants  nimble  and 
industrious  by  working — ^when  you  do  work — ^with  all 
your  might. 

Outdoor  Play. — In  the  afternoon  the  young  knight, 
whether  boy  or  girl,  will  get  outdoors  if  possible,  for 
there  is  nothing  so  good  for  us  as  fresh  air  and  sunlight. 
Games  and  sports  in  the  afternoon  are  just  as  importa^i^ 
a  part  of  your  training  as  studies  in  school-time,  ^tn? 
most  all  kinds  of  exercise  are  helpful,  but  particularly 
those  that  bring  all  the  parts  of  the  body  into  play, 
such  as  running  and  skating  and  tennis.    Games  that 


Fig.  5. — Health  habits:  quiet 
and  concentration  in  study 
time. 


A  WELL-SPENT  DAY 


17 


are  played  by  teams  against  each  other  are  best  of  all, 
for  they  not  only  help  you  to  be  physically  quick  and 
strong,  but  also  show  you  how  to  play  and  work  with 
others.  Most  of  the  things  that  are  worth  while  are 
done  by  men  and  women  working  together.  If  you 
keep  playing  with  all  your  might,  all  the  time,  to  help 
the  rest  of  the  team  win,  with- 
out looking  for  any  special 
glory  for  yourself — you  will 
surely  make  a  good  citizen  in 
after  life. 

Indoors  Again. — In  the 
late  afternoon  and  after  sup- 
per, or  when  it  is  too  stormy 
to  be  out,  there  are  other  in- 
teresting things  to  do.  Sew- 
ing for  girls  and  carpentering 
for  boys,  and  story  books  for 
both,  are  waiting  for  you, 
with  many  other  ways  of 
passing  the  time  as  well.  Even  in  these  hours,  how- 
ever, that  little  body  of  yours  should  not  be  entirely 
forgotten. 

In  the  first  place,  remember  that  it  needs  fresh  air 
even  when  you  are  indoors.  If  the  room  gets  too  hot, 
-^ipen  the  window  and  freshen  up  the  air  for  a  few  min- 
^•.es,  and  you  will  get  more  enjoyment  from  whatever 
you  are  doing  and  you  will  do  it  better. 

When  you  are  sitting  quietly  reading,  your  habits  of 
holding  your  body  are  being  formed,  as  much  as  when 


Fig.  6. — Health  habits:  vigor- 
ous play  in  the  open  air. 


i8 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


you  are  walking  or  running  about.  Don't  loll  and  sit 
on  the  middle  of  your  back  with  your  feet  on  the  chair 
or  sofa.  Old  people  and  sick  people  and  tired  people 
may  need  to  rest  in  this  way,  but  a  child  should  be  able 
to  sit  up,  straight  and  strong. 

Don't  forget  to  give  your  eyes  a  chance,  too.    Those 
two  eyes  are  among  your  very  best  and  most  useful 

servants.  Keep  them  strong 
and  clear  by  always  having  a 
good  light  when  you  read 
or  sew. 

Bedtime. — ^At  last  bedtime 
comes.  The  body  that  has 
worked  hard  all  day  must 
rest  and  grow,  so  as  to  do 
still  more  to-morrow.  Don't 
shorten  the  sleep  time  that 
it  needs. 

The  teeth  must  be  brushed 
again.  And  then — to  bed,  in 
a  room  with  the  window  open 
to  let  in  the  cool  fresh  air,  and  off  to  the  land  of  dreams 
with  the  memory  of  a  well-spent  day! 


Fig.  7. 


-Health  habits:  a  good 
night's  rest. 


Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  What  was  a  knight?    What  did  a  boy  have  to  do  to  become 
a  knight? 

2.  Do  we  have  any  knights  in  America?    What  quahties  that 
the  knights  had  are  still  needed  to-day? 

3.  Is  it  important  that  girls  as  well  as  boys  should  be  strong 
and  health)^?    Why? 


A  WELL-SPENT  DAY  19 

4.  Is  illness  ever  a  person's  own  fault?  Try  to  think  of  some 
cases  in  which  illness  would  be  the  result  of  bad  habits. 

5.  What  are  the  things  that  a  boy  or  girl  should  do  before 
breakfast  to  get  ready  for  a  good  day?  How  many  of  them  did 
you  do  this  morning? 

6.  George  was  very  sleepy  one  morning  and  lay  in  bed  till  it 
was  nearly  time  to  start  for  school.  He  drank  one  mouthful  of 
milk  and  took  one  slice  of  bread  to  eat  as  he  ran,  and  he  forgot 
the  lunch  he  generally  took  to  school.  Tell  how  you  think  George 
felt  during  the  morning,  how  he  got  along  in  his  lessons,  and  how 
well  he  played  in  the  ball  game  at  recess. 

7.  Why  are  games  that  are  played  by  teams  with  several  on  a 
side  better  than  games  that  are  played  alone? 

8.  What  are  some  of  the  things  you  can  do  to  keep  your  body 
strong  and  well  when  you  are  reading  or  sewing  at  home  in  the 
late  afternoon  or  evening? 


CHAPTER  II 
YOUR  WONDERFUL  BODY 

Living  Things  and  Lifeless  Things. — What  are  the 
things  that  interest  you  most  as  you  walk  home  from 
school  or  wander  about  in  the  woods?  Smooth  shiny 
stones  are  attractive,  particularly  if  they  have  bright 
colored  specks  in  them.  If  you  are  like  most  children, 
however,  you  find  flowers  more  beautiful  than  stones — 
and  there  are  a  great  many  more  kinds  of  flowers  than 
there  are  of  stones.  Animals  are  most  interesting  of 
all.  Beetles  crossing  the  path,  butterflies  slowly  waving 
their  wings  on  a  thistle  head,  frogs  in  the  meadow, 
fishes  in  the  stream,  squirrels  in  the  trees,  or  birds 
balancing  on  the  telegraph  wires, — how  fascinating  it 
is  to  try  to  get  near  them  and  see  what  they  are  doing ! 

It  is  the  same  in  the  city.  It  is  pleasant  to  see  the 
automobiles  gliding  by  and  to  look  up  at  the  buildings 
and  think  how  high  they  are.  Most  of  us,  however, 
would  rather  watch  a  good  horse  than  an  automobile; 
and  the  most  interesting  things  to  me  about  the  houses 
I  pass  are  the  cats  on  the  window  sills  and  the  dogs 
playing  about  the  doorsteps. 

The  flowers,  butterflies,  birds,  squirrels,  cats,  and 
dogs  are  all  alive;  and  life  is,  after  all,  the  most  wonder- 
ful thing  in  the  world. 

The  Human  Body. — The  most  wonderful  of  all  kinds 

20 


YOUR  WONDERFUL  BODY 


21 


of  living  things  are  men  and  women  (and  of  course 
girls  and  boys).  We  cannot  "run  like  a  deer/'  nor  is 
any  man  "as  strong  as  a  horse,"  though  we  often  use 
these  expressions  to  mean  that  a  person  is  unusually 


Fig.  8. — ^There  are  many  fascinating  things  in  the  world  but  none 
that  are  quite  so  wonderful  as  the  living  machines  we  call  ani- 
mals and  birds  and  boys  and  girls. 

quick  or  unusually  powerful.  When  it  comes,  however, 
to  things  which  need  skill  and  delicacy,  no  animal  can 
match  us.  You  have  probably  seen  a  conjuror  do  his 
tricks  with  cards  and  coins,  moving  his  fingers  so 
swiftly  that  you  could  not  guess  how  he  managed  to 
make  something  disappear  that  had  been  right  under 
your  eye  the  minute  before.    Or  you  have  watched  a 


22  HEALTHY  LIVING 

good  tennis  player  and  wondered  at  the  way  in  which 
he  gets  just  to  the  place  in  the  court  where  the  ball  is 
coming,  and  hits  it  back  so  that  it  barely  skims  the  net 
and  goes  to  the  one  spot  where  it  will  be  hardest  for  his 
opponent  to  return  it. 

The  human  body  is  in  some  ways  very  much  like  a 
bit  of  machinery — a  watch  or  a  steam  engine — ^but  it 
can  do  many  things  that  no  lifeless  machine  will  ever 
do.  We  all  like  to  know  how  machines  work;  for 
instance,  how  the  burning  of  gasoline  in  an  automobile 
makes  the  wheels  go  round.  We  ought  to  be  still  more 
eager  to  learn  how  our  own  body-machine  works.  Do 
you  know  why  you  have  to  breathe  and  eat  and  sleep; 
how  you  move  about;  how  the  blood  circulates  in  your 
body;  and  how  you  learn  to  do  things  like  riding  a 
bicycle  or  playing  the  piano,  which  become  so  easy  at 
last,  though  at  first  you  could  hardly  do  them  at  all? 

It  is  interesting  to  learn  about  all  the  things  that  go 
on  inside  that  body-machine  of  yours.  It  is  also  very 
important  to  learn  about  them,  because  when  you  know 
how  a  machine  works,  you  can  make  it  run  well  and  get 
the  most  possible  out  of  it.  The  art  of  keeping  the  body- 
machine  in  good  order  is  called  hygiene. 

The  Parts  of  the  Living  Machine. — One  of  the  strik- 
ing things  about  a  machine  is  that  it  is  always  made  up 
of  many  different  parts,  each  of  which  performs  some 
special  part  of  the  work.  Think  whether  this  is  not 
true  of  the  human  body.  First  of  all,  the  body  is  di- 
vided into  the  trunk,  head,  arms,  and  legs.  You  know 
v/hat  the  arms  and  legs  are  for,  but  it  might  be  in- 


YOUR  WONDERFUL  BODY 


23 


teresting  to  make  a  list  of  the  things  you  can  do  with 
each  and  see  which  Hst  is  the  longer  one. 

The  trunk  contains  many  important  parts  of  the 
body.  Some  of  them  are  shown  in  Fig.  9,  and  we  shall 
later  learn  what  they  are  like  and  what  they  do.  The 
head  includes  the  brain,  where  our  thinking  and  feel- 
ing goes  on.  It  con- 
tains also  the  eyes 
with  which  we  see,  the 
nose  through  which  we 
breathe  and  smell,  the 
ears  with  which  we 
hear,  and  the  mouth 
and  throat  and  tongue 
with  which  we  eat, 
taste,  and  speak. 

The  body  inside  is 
not  solid  like  a  stone, 
but  is  made  up  of  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  living 
matter.  In  your  fin- 
gers, for  instance,  you 
can  feel  under  the  skin  soft  matter  with  something  hard 
beneath  it;  and  you  know,  from  having  cut  yourself 
sometime,  that  in  the  soft  matter  there  is  a  red  liquid, 
the  blood. 

A  living  body,  then,  is  made  up  of  different  parts,  each 
having  some  work  to  do  for  the  common  good.  These 
parts  are  called  organs. 

There  is  a  fable  told  by  the  ancient  Greek,  i^sop, 


Fig.  9. 


-Some  of  the  principal  parts  of 
the  Hving  machine. 


24 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


which  illustrates  very  well  the  way  in  which  each  part 
of  the  body  depends  upon  every  other  part.  Once  upon 
a  time,  he  tells  us,  the  different  parts  of  the  body  could 
think  and  talk  and  act  for  themselves.  The  other 
organs  decided  that  the  stomach  was  having  altogether 
too  easy  a  time  of  it.    They  were  tired  of  working  to 

put  food  into  him  while  he 
was  doing  nothing.  So  the 
hands  refused  to  carry  food 
to  the  mouth;  the  mouth 
refused  to  swallow;  the 
teeth  refused  to  chew.  Very 
soon  the  organs  which  had 
made  this  agreement  among 
themselves  begati  to  suffer. 
All  the  time  the  stomach 
had  been  sending  food  back 
to  them,  and  they  found 
they  could  not  live  without 
it.  At  last  they  concluded 
that  they  could  not  get 
along  without  the  stomach  any  better  than  he  could  get 
along  without  them. 

The  Organs  by  Which  the  Body  Moves. — ^Bend  your 
finger  and  notice  what  happens.  It  bends  at  two  places, 
does  it  not?  These  bending  places  are  called  joints. 
Between  the  joints,  the  finger  is  quite  rigid  and  cannot 
be  bent  at  all.  This  is  because  the  finger  is  strength- 
ened and  supported  by  solid  pieces  of  bone.  The  bones 
are  fastened  together  at  the  joints  in  such  a  way  that 


Fig.  lo. — The  bones  of  the  hand. 


YOUR  WONDERFUL  BODY  25 

they  can  move  up  and  down.  Think  what  the  hand 
would  be  if  it  lacked  this  bony  framework  and  were 
soft  and  flabby;  or  if  the  joints  were  not  there  and  the 
hand  were  in  one  stiff  piece.  Sometimes  in  certain  dis- 
eases the  joints  do  stifl'en  so  that  the  fingers  cannot  be 
moved  and  the  hand  becomes  almost  useless. 

The  arms  and  legs  are  supported  by  large  bones  and 
can  bend  only  at  the  joints  where  the  bones  meet. 
The  upper  part  of  the  trunk  is  enclosed  in  a  cage  of 
bones,  which  you  can  feel  moving  up  and  do^\^I  when 
you  breathe  deeply.  The  brain  is  enclosed  in  a  box  of 
bone.  These  bones  help  to  protect  the  softer  parts 
inside.  All  the  bones  of  the  body  together  make  up 
the  skeleton. 

Did  you  ever  wonder  how  it  is  that  you  are  able  to 
move  the  different  parts  of  your  body  at  all?  What 
happens  inside  your  hand  when  you  bend  that  finger 
we  have  been  thinking  about? 

Every  movement  of  this  kind  is  caused  by  a  special 
sort  of  living  matter  in  the  body  called  muscle.  The 
muscles  are  fastened  at  each  end  to  bones.  They  have 
the  power  of  growing  shorter;  and  when  they  shorten, 
they  change  the  position  of  the  two  bones  to  which 
they  are  fastened. 

Food  and  Digestion. — An  automobile  will  not  go  un- 
less it  has  gasoline  to  bum  or  electricity  in  its  storage 
battery.  A  steam  engine  will  not  run  unless  coal  is 
put  in  under  its  boiler.  The  gasoline,  or  electricity,  or 
coal,  supplies  what  we  call  energy  to  run  the  machine. 
The  body  is  just  the  same,  in  this  respect.    In  order  to 


26  HEALTHY  LIVING 

live  and  move  and  grow,  it  must  be  given  food,  for  food 
is  to  the  body  what  gasoline  is  to  the  automobile  or 
coal  to  the  steam  engine.    The  more  active  we  are,  the 

more  food  we  need ;  and 
without  food  we  become 
weak  and  waste  away. 

Several  things  must 
happen  to  our  food  be- 
fore we  can  use  it.  It 
must  be  broken  up  into 
a  fine  pulp  by  the  teeth, 
and  then  swallowed,  and 
then  changed  in  the 
stomach  and  other  or- 
gans before  it  can  be 
used.  The  process  of 
Fig.  II.— An  automobile  must  be  sup-  preparing  the  food  for 
plied  with  gasoline  in  order  that  it  ^^.e  use  of   the  body  is 

called  digestion.  As 
^sop  has  taught  us  in  his  fable,  the  work  of  the  organs 
of  digestion  is  very  important  for  the  health  of  the 
body  as  a  whole. 

Breathing. — ^You  probably  know  that  the  fire  in  the 
kitchen  stove  will  not  bum  well  unless  there  is  a  good 
draft,  or  current  of  air.  There  is  something  in  the 
air  called  oxygen,  which  makes  a  fire  burn.  If  a  piece 
of  burning  wood  in  the  fireplace  were  covered  with 
ashes  so  that  the  air  could  not  reach  it,  the  fire  would 
soon  go  out. 

The  body  is  like  a  fire,  in  the  fact  that  it  must  have 


YOUR  WONDERFUL  BODY 


27 


oxygen  all  the  time;  and  this  is  the  reason  why  we 

breathe.     We  can  go  without  food  for  hours  or  even 

days,  but  we  cannot  Kve  for  many  minutes  without 

breathing,  or  taking  in 

air.     The    organs    by 

which  we  draw  the  air 

in  and  get  oxygen  from 

it  are  called  the  organs 

of    respiration.     (The 

word  respiration  means 

breathing.) 

Do  you  know  how 
many  times  a  minute 
you  breathe?  Watch 
the  clock  some  day  and 
count  your  breaths  for 
a  minute. 

The  Heart  and  the 
Blood  Vessels. — The 
food  is  taken  in  by 
certain  organs  of  the 


Fig.  12. — ^A  child  must  be  supplied 
with  food  in  order  that  it  may 
Hve  and  grow.  It  gets  its  energy 
and  strength  from  the  food,  much 
as  the  automobile  gets  its  power 
from  the  burning  of  the  gasoline. 


body,  and  the  oxygen 
by  others.  Somehow  these  things  must  be  carried  to 
ever>^  part  of  the  body,  for  all  the  organs  need  them  in 
order  to  keep  alive. 

The  special  organs  which  do  this  work — the  railroad 
system  of  the  body — are  the  heart  and  the  blood  vessels. 
You  know  that  the  blood  seems  to  be  in  all  parts  of  the 
body,  for  when  you  cut  yourself  deeply  anywhere  the 
blood  flows.    All  through  the  living  parts  of  the  body 


28  HEALTHY  LIVING 

the  blood  is  carried,  inside  a  system  of  closed  tubes, 
the  blood  vessels,  which  branch  like  the  branches  of 
a  tree,  getting  finer  and  finer.  Through  each  tube 
blood  is  moving;  and  whenever  blood  flows  from  a  cut 
or  a  scratch,  it  is  because  the  walls  of  some  of  these 
fine  tubes  have  been  broken. 

The  blood  is  driven  through  these  blood  vessels  by 
the  heart.  This  organ  beats  nearly  a  hundred  times  a 
minute,  each  beat  forcing  blood  out  into  the  blood 
vessels.  Everywhere  the  blood  goes,  it  carries  with  it 
the  food  and  the  oxygen  needed  by  the  different  parts 
of  the  body. 

You  can  feel  your  heart  beating  away  as  regularly 
as  a  clock  ticks,  if  you  put  your  hand  on  the  left  side  of 
your  chest.  You  will  learn  in  Chapter  XI  what  the 
heart  is  like  and  how  it  does  its  work. 

The  Brain  and  the  Nerves. — ^We  have  seen  that  a 
movement  like  the  bending  of  your  finger  is  caused  by 
the  shortening,  or  contraction,  of  a  muscle.  But  what 
makes  the  muscle  contract?  When  you  make  up  your 
mind  to  bend  one  special  finger,  how  is  the  message 
carried  to  the  right  place? 

This  task  of  keeping  all  parts  of  the  body  working 
as  we  want  them  to  work  is  accomplished  by  a  group 
of  organs  which  we  call  the  nervous  system.  The 
brain,  where  our  thinking  goes  on,  is  connected  with 
all  parts  of  the  body  by  tiny  white  threads  called  nerves. 
It  is  along  one  of  these  nerves  that  the  message  goes  out 
from  the  brain  when  you  make  your  finger  bend. 

The  nervous  system  does  much  more,  however,  than 


YOUR  WONDERFUL  BODY  29 

merely  make  it  possible  for  us  to  move  various  parts 
of  our  bodies  as  we  wish.  All  the  time,  whether  we 
think  about  it  or  not,  a  great  many  things  are  going  on 
inside  our  bodies,  like  the  breathing  and  the  beating  of 
the  heart.  All  these  activities  are  kept  going  in  an 
orderly  fashion  by  messages  which  are  constantly 
passing  from  one  part  of  the  body  to  another  through 
the  nerves. 

The  principal  parts,  or  organs,  of  the  body  are : 

The  bones. 

The  muscles. 

The  organs  of  digestion. 

The  organs  of  respiration. 

The  heart  and  the  blood  vessels. 

The  brain  and  the  nerves. 

We  shall  want  to  learn  a  little  more  about  each  of 
these  kinds  of  organs  and  how  they  work,  in  later 
chapters. 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Divide  all  the  things  you  can  see  in  the  schoolroom  into 
living  things  and  lifeless  things.  Then  see  what  differences  you 
can  think  of  between  lifeless  things  as  a  group  and  living  things 
as  another  group. 

2.  What  is  the  study  of  hygiene?    Why  is  it  important? 

3.  Can  you  think  of  ways  in  which  the  body  is  like  some 
machine  that  you  know  about? 

4.  Which  is  better  off:  a  dog  with  four  legs  or  a  man  with 
two  legs  and  two  arms?    Why? 

5.  What  is  an  organ?  See  how  long  a  list  you  can  make  of  the 
different  organs  of  the  body. 


30  HEALTHY  LIVING 

6.  Tell  in  your  own  words  the  fable  of  the  stomach.  What 
lesson  does  it  teach? 

7.  What  are  the  organs  by  which  the  parts  of  the  body  are 
moved? 

8.  When  are  you  more  hungry:  after  a  hard  play  out  of  doors 
or  after  a  rainy  afternoon  spent  in  the  house  with  a  book?    Why? 

Q.  In  what  way  is  the  body  like  a  fire?  Why  does  a  fire  go  out 
when  it  is  covered  wdth  ashes? 

10.  Of  what  use  is  the  blood  to  the  body? 

11.  Write  a  fable  like  ^sop's  fable  of  the  stomach,  telling  in 
story  form  what  would  happen  if  the  nerves  decided  not  to  carry 
messages  to  the  muscles  any  more. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  FRAMEWORK  OF  THE  BODY 

The  Importance  of  the  Bony  System. — If  you  have 
ever  been  at  the  seashore,  you  have  probably  seen  jelly- 
fishes  swimming  in  the  water,  like  clear  glassy  bells; 
and  you  have  perhaps  noticed  some  of  these  same 
jellyiishes  washed  up  on  the  sand  and  looking  then 
like  mere  lumps  of  lifeless  jelly.  They  have  no  bones  or 
hard  parts  at  all,  and  outside  of  the  water  they  are  quite 
helpless. 

Most  animals  that  live  and  move  about  in  the  air, 
and  many  of  those  that  live  in  the  water  too,  have  some 
sort  of  skeleton,  a  system  of  hard  parts  which  gives 
their  bodies  firmness.  All  the  animals  which  can  move 
quickly  and  powerfully  must  have  a  skeleton,  for  quick 
movement  requires  the  shortening  of  strong  muscles, 
fastened  at  each  end  to  parts  that  are  firm  and  rigid. 

Sometimes  the  skeleton  of  an  animal  is  on  the  out- 
side, as  in  the  case  of  a  beetle  or  an  ant;  sometimes  in- 
side, as  in  the  case  of  the  bones  in  our  own  bodies. 

What  the  Bones  are  Made  of. — We  often  think  of  the 
bones  as  dead  things.  They  are  made  up,  for  the  most 
part,  of  a  mineral  lime,  which  is  found  in  limestone, 
but  they  have  living  matter  in  them  too.  If  bones 
did  not  contain  living  matter,  they  could  not  grow; 
and  if  you  think  about  it,  you  will  see  that,  as  a  child 

31 


32 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


Skull 


.Breastbone 


-Backbone 


■Pelvis 


grows,  its  bones  must  be  growing  too.    It  is  important 
for  children  to  drink  plenty  of  milk,  because  milk 

contains  a  great  deal  of 
the  lime  out  of  which 
new  bone  is  made. 

The  General  Plan 
of  the  Skeleton. — ^The 
general  arrangement  of 
the  bones  in  the  hu- 
man body  is  shown  in 
Fig.  13.  You  will  no- 
tice, if  you  look  at  this 
picture,  that  in  the 
central  part  of  the 
body  (the  trunk)  there 
is  a  strong  backbone, 
with  the  ribs  attached 
to  it  in  the  upper  part, 
and  a  pair  of  flattened 
bones  which  make  up 
the  pelvis  below.  The 
pelvis  is  a  sort  of  bowl 
which  helps  to  support 
the  soft  organs  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  trunk. 
At  the  top  of  the 
Fig.  13.— The  bony  framework  of  the    backbone,  in  the  head, 

^^^^'  is  the  skull;  and  down 

the  center  of  the  arms  and  legs  there  run  rows  of  bones 
which  branch  out  into  the  fingers  and  toes. 


THE  FRAMEWORK  OF  THE  BODY  33 

The  Bones  and  the  Joints. — There  are  about  two 
hundred  bones  in  the  whole  body.  They  differ  very 
much  from  one  another  in  shape  and  size,  according  to 
the  work  they  have  to  do.  Some  of  them  are  fixed 
firmly  to  each  other,  but  at  many  places  the  bones  are 
fastened  together  in  such  a  way  that  they  can  be  moved 
in  certain  directions.  Such  a  place  is  called  a  joint. 
Perhaps  you  have  seen  men  in  the  circus  who  could 
put  their  feet  up  behind  their  heads  and  almost  tie 
themselves  into  bowknots.  They  show  us  how  the 
power  of  bending  the  joints  can  be  developed  by  ex- 
ercise. In  very  old  people,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
joints  sometimes  become  so  stiff  that  they  can  hardly 
be  moved  at  all.  This  is  one  reason  why  those  who  are 
young  and  strong  should  be  ready  to  run  errands  and 
help  old  people  in  every  way  they  can. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  difference  between  the  kind 
of  movements  we  can  make  with  different  joints,  de- 
pending on  the  ways  in  which  the  bones  are  fitted  to- 
gether. Notice  the  kinds  of  movements  you  can  make 
at  your  shoulder,  your  elbow,  and  your  wrist. 

The  Backbone  and  the  Ribs. — The  part  of  the  skel- 
eton which  keeps  the  trunk  erect  is  the  backbone.  It  is 
so  important  to  the  body  that  it  has  become  a  symbol 
of  strength  of  all  kinds.  We  say  that  a  person  who  is 
weak  and  easily  influenced  has  ''no  backbone,"  because 
a  person  without  a  backbone  could  not  stand  up  alone 
and  would  be  almost  as  helpless  as  the  jellyfish  we  were 
thinking  about  a  little  while  ago. 

The  backbone  is  not  a  single  bone,  as  you  might 


34 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


think  from  the  name,  but  a  row  of  more  than  twenty 
separate  bones,  each  one  in  the  shape  of  a  rather  thick 
ring.  These  rings  are  held  quite  firmly  together  by 
bands  of  muscle,  but  these  muscles  "give"  so  that  we 
can  bend  the  body  from  side  to  side  and  from  front  to 
back.  Some  people  can  bend  the 
body  more  easily  than  others.  Stand 
with  your  feet  together  and  your  knees 
straight  and  your  arms  up  over  your 
head;  then  see  if  you  can  swing  your 
arms  down  and  touch  the  ground  in 
front  of  you. 

The  curved,  hoop-like  ribs  form  a 
cage  to  protect  the  important  organs 
in  the  upper  part  of  the  trunk.  They 
are  joined  to  the  backbone  at  the  back, 
and  to  a  bone  called  the  breastbone  in 
the  front.  The  ribs  are  attached  to  the 
backbone  in  such  a  way  that  they  and 
the  breastbone  together  can  be  raised 
and  lowered  slightly  as  we  breathe. 
Breathe  deeply  and  notice  how  your 
ribs  rise  and  fall. 

The  Skull. — It  is  very  important 
that  the  brain  should  be  protected 
Fig.  i4.-The  bones  from  any  injury.     The  bones  of  the 
eg  an    arm.    J^gg^^J  ^y q]^  f qj-jj^  |^]^g  gj^^H  g^j.g  gpg(^ ja^^y 

arranged  so  as  to  do  this;  they  are  not  movable  like  so 
many  of  the  bones  of  the  body,  but  are  joined  firmly 
together  to  make  a  tight  case  or  box.  There  are  openings 


THE  FRAMEWORK  OF  THE  BODY 


35 


below  for  the  nerves  to  come  in  from  the  trunk,  and 
openings  in  front  for  nerves  from  the  eyes  and  nose. 

The  Bones  of  the  Arms  and  the  Legs. — ^The  general 
arrangement  of  the  larger  bones  in  the  arms  and  the 
legs  is  shown  in  Fig.  14.  Notice  that  arms  and  legs  are 
built  very  much  on  the  same  plan,  the  part  above  the 
elbow  or  knee  being  strengthened  by  a  single  large  bone, 


Fig.  15. — One  boy  stands  well,  one  slouches,  and  one  holds  himself 
with  unnatural  stiffness.     Can  you  tell  which  is  which? 

(Used  by  courtesy  of  the  American  Posture  League.) 

the  part  below  by  two  bones  side  by  side.  Five  rows 
of  smaller  bones  run  out  through  the  palm  of  the  hand 
and  the  upper  part  of  the  foot,  into  fingers  and  toes. 

Holding  the  Body  Well. — We  all  have  the  same  kind 
of  framework  in  our  bodies;  but  you  would  hardly  think 
so  to  look  at  the  people  you  meet  in  the  street,  or  per- 
haps even  at  the  children  in  your  schoolroom.  Some 
are  erect  and  strong  and  well-balanced  on  their  feet 


36  HEALTHY  LIVING 

so  that  it  is  a  delight  to  look  at  them,  while  others  are 
stoop-shouldered  and  slouching,  with  bent  back  and 
head  run  forward.  The  bones  are  the  same  in  each 
case.  It  is  only  that  one  person  has  trained  his  muscles 
to  hold  the  bones  in  place,  while  the  other  has  let  the 
muscles  grow  slack  and  loose  and  has  become  as  much 
like  the  jellyfish  as  he  possibly  could. 

If  you  hold  your  body  correctly,  a  line  dropped  from 
the  front  of  the  ear  should  fall  within  the  front  half  of 
the  foot  when  you  are  standing  still.  The  shoulders 
should  be  flattened,  the  head  up,  the  knees  straight, 
the  feet  set  squarely  side  by  side  and  pointing  straight 
forward.  When  practicing  a  good  position,  try  to 
"stand  tall."  In  sitting,  the  body  should  be  bent  only 
at  knees  and  waist,  the  head,  neck,  and  trunk  being  in 
one  straight  line. 

The  habit  of  holding  the  body  properly  is  important, 
not  only  for  the  general  appearance  of  the  body, 
but  for  health  and  strength  as  well.  In  a  stooping, 
slouching  body,  the  inner  parts  are  crowded  together 
and  injured  so  that  they  cannot  do  their  work  well. 
Boys  and  girls  who  have  the  habits  of  clasping  their 
hands  behind  their  backs,  folding  their  arms  tightly 
in  front,  or  placing  the  hands  on  the  hips  with  the 
thumbs  forward  are  very  likely  to  be  round-shouldered 
and  flat-chested. 

Setting-up  Exercises.— One  of  the  very  first  things 
that  a  recruit  must  do  when  he  enters  the  army  is  to 
take  special  exercises,  called  setting-up  exercises,  which 
wiU  train  him  to  hold  his  body  properly.    It  would  be 


THE  FRAMEWORK  OF  THE  BODY 


37 


Fig.  1 6  a. 


Fig.  i6.— Setting- 
up      exercises,    ._^— 
No.  I. 

(a)  Arms  upward  bend. 
First,  third,  and  fifth 
positions. 

(b)  Arms  outward  extend. 
Second  position. 

(r)    Arms    upward    extend. 

Fourth  position. 
{d)    Arms     backward     and 

downward  extend.     Sixth 

position. 


f(=) 


Fig.  i6  5. 
well  for  every  one  of  us  to  take  some  simple 
exercises  of  this  kind.    For  a  child  of  ten  to 
twelve  years  of  age,  the  following  exercises 
are  recommended  by  Professor  W.  G.  Ander- 
son,     Director     of     the 
Gymnasium  at  Yale  Uni- 
versity.    If  you  will  go 
through  these  movements 
a  few  times  every  mom- 
;    ing  on  getting  up,  you 
will  find  it  will  help  you 
to  carry  your  body  well. 
Number  I. — i.   Arms 
upward  bend.   (Fig.  1 6a.) 
2.  Arms    outward    ex- 
Fig.  i6d.       tend.    (See  Fig.  i6b.) 

3.  Arms  upward  bend,  as  in  first  position. 

4.  Arms  upward  extend.     (See    Fig.  16c.) 


1/ 


\ 


38 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


'':=i. 


Fig,  170^. 
Fig.  17. — Setting-up  exercises,  No.  II. 


{a)  First  position. 
{h)  Second  position, 
(c)  Third  position. 

tips  back  of  the  neck 
with  elbows  back.  (See 
Fig.  lyt.) 

3.  Raise  the  finger 
tips  above  the  head 
again  as  in  the  first 
exercise  and  then  force 
them  backward,  out- 
ward, and  downward. 
(See  Fig.  17c.) 


5.  Arms  upward 
bend. 

6.  Arms  backward 
and  downward  ex- 
tend.    (See  Fig.  16 J.) 

Number  II. 

1.  Swing  the  arms 
slowly  backward,  side- 
ways, and  upward 
until  the  finger  tips 
touch  above  the  head. 
(See  Fig.  17a.) 

2.  Bring  the  finger 


Fig.  17  c. 


THE  FRAMEWORK  OF  THE  BODY 


39 


Fig.  i8a.  Fig.  iSb. 

Fig.  i8. — Setting-up  exercises,  No.  Ill:  the  swimming  exercise. 
(a)  Second  position,    (b)  Third  position. 

Number  III.    The  Swimming  Exercise. 

1.  Stand  with  the  feet  apart  sideways  and  the 

.  body  bent  sHghtly  forward,  keeping  the  head 
raised  and  the  eyes  upward. 

2.  Bring    the    hands    together   in   front    of    the 

waist,  carry  them  upward  and  forward  close 
to  the  body  past  the  neck  and  face,  and  as 
far  forward  and  upward  as  possible.  (See 
Fig.  1 8a.) 

3.  Turn  the  palms  outward,  separate  the  hands, 

and  swing  the  arms  backward,  outward,  and 
downward,  as  a  person  does  when  he  swims. 
(See  Fig.  iSb.) 

4.  Again  let  the  finger  tips  meet  in  front  of  the 

waist. 


40  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Repeat  this  exercise  five  or  six  times.  Take  the  move- 
ments slowly.  Always  keep  the  chest  arched,  the  eyes 
up,  and  the  head  back  a  little. 

Things  that  Prevent  Us  from  Holding  the  Body  Well. 
Sometimes  a  bent  or  deformed  body  is  the  result  of 
bad  habits  of  sitting,  formed  perhaps  in  school.  See  if 
the  desk  and  seat  at  school  are  so  arranged  that  you  can 
sit  comfortably  at  your  work  with  your  back  straight. 
If  not,  ask  the  teacher  if  your  seat  cannot  be  changed  or 
the  chair  raised  or  lowered.  If  3^our  chair  is  too  high 
or  too  near  your  desk,  so  that  3^ou  have  to  bend  your 
shoulders  over  or  twist  your  body  sideways  to  get  at 
your  work,  it  may  do  you  real  harm. 

Tight  clothing  also  is  bad  for  the  body.  Shoes  that 
are  too  tight,  and  shoes  that  have  high  heels,  injure 
the  foot  itself  and  interfere  with  the  proper  carriage 
of  the  bodv  as  a  whole.  It  was  once  the  rule  in  China 
to  bind  up  the  feet  of  girl  babies  tightly  so  that  they 
could  not  grow,  and  it  is  very  sad  to  see  the  women 
walking  unsteadily,  on  feet  so  small  and  misshapen  they 
hardly  look  like  feet  at  all.  The  Chinese  of  to-day  have 
for  the  most  part  given  up  this  horrible  custom,  and 
we  ought  to  be  as  sensible  as  they  and  wear  shoes  that 
are  big  enough  to  let  our  feet  develop  properly. 

The  Story  of  the  Young  Prince  and  the  Robber  Chil- 
dren.— ^A  story  is  told  of  a  young  prince  who  was  once 
traveling  with  some  of  his  courtiers  to  a  distant  city. 
The  party  was  set  upon  in  the  forest  by  robbers,  who 
killed  all  the  attendants  and  carried  off  the  prince  as 
a  prisoner.    They  took  off  his  fine  clothing  and  made 


THE  FRAMEWORK  OF  THE  BODY 


41 


him  pile  wood  and  carry  water  and  do  the  rest  of  the 
work  of  the  camp,  just  as  their  own  children  did. 

The  governor  of  the  city  heard  from  people  in  the 
forest  about  the  kidnapping,  and  he  sent  out  soldiers, 
who  drove  off  the  robbers  and  brought  all  the  children 


Fig.  19. — The  young  prince  is  identified  among  the  robber  children 
by  the  kingly  carriage  of  his  body. 

in  the  camp  to  the  governor's  palace.  The  young 
prince  told  the  soldiers  who  he  was  and  thanked  them 
for  rescuing  him.  The  robbers'  children,  however,  were 
as  bad  as  their  parents.  As  soon  as  the  real  prince  had 
spoken,  one  of  them  cried  out,  ''That  is  not  true.  He 
is  not  the  prince.  I  am  the  prince."  And  another  said, 
''No,  /  am  the  prince;"  and  another,  and  another. 


42  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Prince  and  all  were  dirty  and  clothed  in  rags.  No  one 
in  this  city  had  seen  the  prince  since  he  was  a  baby, 
and  the  soldiers  were  much  puzzled  to  know  what  to  do. 

The  governor  of  the  city,  however,  was  an  old  man 
and  very  wise.  He  had  all  the  would-be  princes  brought 
before  him.  After  looking  at  them  all  for  a  moment, 
he  went  up  to  the  real  prince  and  said,  "Your  Highness, 
I  know  that  you  are  the  prince  because  you  hold  your- 
self like  a  king;  and  I  know  that  these  others  are  the 
children  of  the  robbers  because  they  slouch  and  crouch 
like  thieves,  as  they  are." 

If  you  were  kidnapped,  as  the  prince  was,  could  any 
one  tell  you  from  one  of  the  robber  children  by  the 
way  you  hold  yourself? 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Of  what  use  are  the  bones  in  your  body? 

2.  What  kinds  of  animals  can  you  think  of  that  have  their 
skeletons  on  the  outside?  What  kinds,  that  have  their  skeletons 
inside  their  bodies,  as  we  do? 

3.  What  is  one  reason  why  the  habit  of  drinking  milk  is  a  good 
one  for  children  to  form? 

4.  Name  the  principal  parts  of  the  skeleton. 

5.  What  difference  is  there  between  the  movements  of  the 
arm  at  your  shoulder  and  the  movements  of  your  lower  arm  at 
the  elbow  when  you  keep  your  upper  arm  still? 

6.  How  is  the  backbone  made  up? 

7.  What  bones  move  when  you  breathe  deeply? 

8.  What  are  some  of  the  important  differences  between  the 
bones  of  the  skull  and  those  of  the  arms? 

Q.  WTiat  are  the  principal  things  to  remember  about  holding 
the  body  well  when  standing?    When  sitting? 


THE  FRAMEWORK  OF  THE  BODY  43 

10.  Eleanor  thought  a  great  deal  about  her  clothes  and  always 
wore  shoes  that  were  too  small  for  her;  but  she  never  thought 
much  about  holding  her  body  well.  Clara  was  not  vain;  she 
wore  sensible  shoes,  and  exercised  every  morning.  There  was  a 
play  at  the  school  and  one  of  these  girls  was  to  play  the  part  of 
a  princess  in  it.  Tell  which  one  you  think  was  chosen,  and  ex- 
plain why. 

12.  Tell  the  story  of  the  prince  and  the  robber  children. 
What  lesson  does  it  teach? 


CHAPTER  IV 
HOW  THE  PARTS  OF  OUR  BODY  MOVE 

The  Muscles  and  How  They  Do  Their  Work. — ^You 
have  learned  in  Chapter  II  that  the  organs  which  move 
the  different  parts  of  the  body  are  called  muscles. 
You  have  learned,  too,  that  a  muscle  is  joined  to  two 
bones  or  other  hard  parts  of  the  body,  and  that  when 
the  muscle  shortens,  it  brings  nearer  together  the  two 
parts  to  which  it  is  fastened. 

Suppose  that  you  have  a  short  but  very  w^ide  and 
strong  rubber  band,  and  that  you  fasten  it  at  one  end 
to  a  shutter  and  at  the  other  end  to  the  wall  of  the 
house.  The  band  would  shorten  and  pull  the  shutter  in 
toward  the  wall.  This  is  an  illustration  of  the  general 
way  in  which  a  muscle  acts.  The  rubber  band,  how- 
ever, would  pull  on  the  shutter  all  the  time,  while  our 
muscles  shorten  and  pull  only  when  it  is  necessary  that 
some  movement  should  take  place. 

The  way  in  which  the  muscle  bends 'the  arm  at  the 
elbow  is  shown  in  Fig.  20.  This  big  muscle,  which  is 
called  the  biceps  muscle,  runs  from  the  shoulder  down 
the  length  of  the  upper  arm  and  is  fastened  to  the 
upper  part  of  the  forearm  just  below  the  elbow.  The 
muscle  is  shaped  like  a  spindle,  and  when  the  arm  is 
straight,  it  is  stretched  out  and  loose.  When  you  bend 
your  arm,  it  becomes  short  and  thick,  as  an  elastic 

44 


HOW  THE  PARTS  OF  OUR  BODY  MOVE         45 

band  does  when  it  shortens  or  contracts.  Since  the 
ends  of  the  muscle  are  fixed  to  the  shoulder  and  the 
forearm,  this  shortening  tends  to  pull  the  bone  in  the  fore- 
arm toward  the  shoulder.  Press  your  left  hand  tightly 
on  the  upper  part  of  your  right  arm.  Bend  your  right 
arm  slowly  up,  and  if  you  have  well-developed  jnuscles, 
you  can  feel  the  biceps  muscle  thicken  and  swell  up. 


Fig.  20. — How  the  biceps  muscle  bends  the  arm. 

The  muscles  are  in  many  cases  fastened  to  the  bones, 
or  other  parts  which  they  move,  by  strong  bands  called 
tendons.  In  the  drumstick  of  a  chicken  you  can  see 
the  tough  whitish  tendons  which  connect  the  muscle 
with  the  bone  at  its  lower  end;  and  the  meat  of  the 
drumstick  above^  like  all  other  kinds  of  lean  meat  that 
we  eat,  is  the  muscle  itself. 

Different  Kinds  of  Muscles. — There  are  hundreds  of 
dififerent  muscles  in  the  body,  and  all  together  they 


46  HEALTHY  LIVING 

make  up  about  half  its  weight.  They  differ  very  much 
among  themselves  in  shape  and  size,  according  to  the 
special  work  they  have  to  do.  The  legs  and  the  arms 
are  almost  solid  masses  of  muscle,  except  for  the  bones 
inside,  while  the  trunk  is  enclosed  back  and  front  in 
great  sheets  of  muscle. 

The  muscles  in  the  legs  by  which  we  make  the  move- 
ments of  running  and  walking  are  large  and  powerful, 
but  the  biggest  muscles  of  all  are  the  ones  in  the  back 
which  men  use  when  they  lift  heavy  weights.  One  of 
these  back  muscles  weighs  several  pounds. 

Every  flickering  of  an  eyelid  and  every  change  in 
the  expression  of  the  face  is  brought  about  by  the  con- 
traction of  tiny  muscles  in  the  skin. 

Our  Unseen  Servants. — Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a, 
little  girl  who  had  an  illness  which  lasted  for  years  and 
kept  her  in  bed  so  that  she  could  not  go  out  and  play 
with  other  children.  Her  parents  were  wealthy,  and- 
she  had  everything  that  money  could  buy;  but  she  never 
left  her  room  and  she  rarely  saw  any  one  but  her  mother 
and  her  father  and  her  nurse. 

At  last  the  doctor  who  was  caring  for  this  little  girl 
succeeded  in  curing  her  so  that  she  could  walk  about 
and  was  gaining  strength  every  day.  When  she  was 
allowed  to  come  downstairs,  you  can  imagine  how  inter- 
esting and  exciting  it  was,  after  she  had  spent  all  those 
years  in  one  room.  You  can  imagine,  too,  how  many 
surprising  things  she  saw,  things  that  would  seem  very 
natural  to  you,  but  to  her  were  new  and  strange.  One 
of  these  surprises  came  when  she  passed  through  a  door 


HOW  THE  PARTS  OF  OUR  BODY  MOVE         47 

into  a  room  containing  a  big  black  stove,  with  steam 
coming  out  of  some  pots  which  a  tall,  cheerful  woman 
was  stirring. 

"Excuse  me,"  said  the  child,  "but  what  is  this  room 
and  who  are  you?" 

"This  is  the  kitchen,"  replied  the  woman  with  a 
smile,  "and  I  am  the  cook  who  prepares  all  your  meals." 

Just  then  a  man  with  a  big  shovel  walked  through  the 
kitchen.     "Who  is  that?"  whispered  the  child. 

"That  is  the  choreman  who  is  going  to  attend  to  the 
furnace  so  that  you  may  be  all  snug  and  warm  up- 
stairs." 

There  was  a  ring  at  the  doorbell  and  a  boy  handed  in 
some  meat  from  the  butcher's  for  dinner;  and  another 
left  some  tea  and  sugar;  and  another,  some  of  the  little 
girl's  clothes  from  the  laundry,  all  smooth  and  white. 

She  went  upstairs  to  her  mother,  with  her  eyes  shining 
with  excitement,  and  cried  out,  "Oh,  Mother,  I  never 
thought  where  all  the  things  came  from  that  I  had  in 
my  little  room  upstairs.  All  the  time  the  cook  and  the 
choreman  and  the  butcher's  boy  and  the  grocer's  boy 
were  working  for  me,  so  that  I  might  have  all  the  things 
I  needed." 

Are  not  the  muscles  and  other  organs  of  the  body 
somewhat  like  the  cook  and  the  choreman  in  this  little 
girl's  house,  faithful  servants  working  for  us  all  the 
time  without  our  realizing  how  much  their  ser\dce 
means?  You  can  feel  your  biceps  muscle  as  it  bends 
the  elbow.  You  can  think  of  the  movements  of  many 
other  parts  of  the  body  which  the  muscles  bring  about, 


48  HEALTHY  LIVING 

and  which  they  accompKsh  for  you  when  you  wish  it. 
There  are  a  great  many  other  muscles,  however,  which 
work  for  you  without  any  effort  of  your  will  at  all; 
muscles  whose  action  you  could  not  stop  even  if  you 
tried.  The  muscles  used  in  breathing,  for  instance, 
contract  about  twenty  times  a  minute,  day  and  night, 
sleeping  or  waking,  day  after  day,  week  after  week, 
year  after  year.  There  are  muscles  in  the  walls  of  the 
blood  vessels,  muscles  in  the  walls  of  the  stomach,  and 
in  many  other  organs  of  the  body.  They  are  all  nec- 
essary for  the  working  of  our  body-machine,  and,  like 
the  little  girl  who  had  been  ill,  we  should  be  very  grate- 
ful that  we  have  such  faithful  servants  to  do  all  that  is 
necessary  for  our  good. 

Strong  Men  of  Old  Times  and  of  To-day. — In  old 
times  the  Greeks  used  to  tell  many  beautiful  stories, 
about  great  men  with  much  more  wisdom  and  power 
than  real  people  have  to-day.  One  of  these  great  men, 
who  was  said  to  have  done  mighty  deeds  upon  the 
earth,  was  named  Hercules.  According  to  the  story, 
he  was  so  strong  that  he  could  kill  a  lion  with  his  hands. 
His  most  famous  feat,  however,  was  the  securing  of 
some  wonderful  apples  made  of  gold.  He  traveled  into 
far-off  countries  in  search  of  these  golden  apples  and 
at  last  found  that  the  one  person  who  could  get  them 
for  him  was  the  mighty  giant  Atlas.  The  Greek  legend 
says  that  Atlas  stood  at  the  end  of  the  earth  with  his 
feet  in  a  forest  and  his  head  in  the  clouds,  holding  up 
the  sky  on  his  shoulders.  Atlas  was  quite  willing  to 
get  the  apples,  but  what  was  to  be  done  about  the  sky? 


HOW  THE  PARTS  OF  OUR  BODY  MOVE 


49 


Why,  Hercules  could  hold  it  on  his  own  great  shoulders, 
to  be  sure,  while  the  giant  strode  over  land  and  sea  to 
the  Garden  of  the  Hesperides,  where  the  apples  were  to 


Fig.  21. — Hercules  holding  the  sky  on  his  shoulders,  while  the  giant 
Atlas  goes  to  pluck  the  Golden  Apples  of  the  Hesperides. 

be  found.  So  it  was  arranged;  and  although  Hercules 
tottered  a  little  and  shook  down  a  few  stars,  he  held  up 
the  sky  safely  till  Atlas  came  back.  How  Atlas  was  in- 
clined to  take  a  little  vacation  and  leave  Hercules  in  his 
place,  and  how  Hercules  got  the  sky  off  his  own  shoul- 
ders and  on  the  giant's  again,  you  must  read  some  day 


50  HEALTHY  LIVING 

in  a  charming  book  by  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  called 
Tanglewood  Tales. 

It  is  not  only  the  Greeks  who  were  fond  of  tales  of 
strong  men  like  Hercules.  The  peoples  of  Northern 
Europe  had  a  god  called  Thor  (from  whom  our  Thurs- 
day or  Thor's  day  is  named) ,  who  did  great  deeds,  killing 
evil  beasts  and  bad  giants  with  a  mighty  hammer. 
All  nations  have  had  their  old-time  heroes,  men  of 
strength  and  courage;  and  they  were  right  in  admiring 
them  and  telling  about  their  doings  so  as  to  make 
other  people  want  to  be  like  them. 

There  are  no  giants  and  not  many  lions  to  be  killed 
in  our  world  to-day.  There  is,  however,  plenty  of  work 
to  be  done,  which  needs  strength  almost  like  that  of 
Hercules  and  which  is  more  useful  to  the  world  than 
the  finding  of  golden  apples.  In  war  time  men  must 
still  be  ready  to  defend  their  country;  and  in  peace 
there  is  work  to  do  that  is  scarcely  less  important. 
The  coal  that  is  burned  to  keep  us  warm  in  winter, 
and  to  run  locomotives  and  drive  the  machinery  in 
factories,  must  be  dug  out  of  the  mines  by  human 
muscle.  In  other  mines  men  are  getting  out  the  iron 
from  the  earth.  In  the  factories  the  iron  is  made  into 
steel — the  steel  that  builds  our  tall  city  buildings  and 
our  railroads  and  the  great  guns  for  our  army.  The 
tall  buildings  themselves  must  be  built,  and  the  rail- 
roads must  be  laid,  and  w^hen  they  have  been  finished, 
the  snorting  locomotives  must  be  driven  over  them, 
pulling  their  long  trains  of  cars  behind.  The  men  who 
do  these  things  must  be  strong  in  muscle,  and  they 


HOW  THE  PARTS  OF  OUR  BODY  MOVE 


51 


must  be  brave  as  well  as  strong.  It  is  no  uncommon 
thing  for  the  miner  or  the  railroad  engineer  or  the  man 
who  places  the  steel  in  a  tall  building  to  lose  his  life 
from  a  fall  or  an  accident  of  some  other  kind. 

How  to  Grow  Strong. — Strength  of  body  is  a  fine 


Fig.  22. — Strong  men  and  brave  men  are  needed  to-day  to  mine  coal 
and  iron,  to  make  steel,  to  build  railroads  and  tall  buildings.  The 
men  in  the  picture  are  placing  the  steel  for  a  "sky-scraper"  in 
the  City  of  New  York. 

thing  if  it  is  used,  not  to  bully  and  take  things  by 
force,  but  to  help  and  defend  the  weak  and  to  do  the 
heavy  work  of  the  world. 

"Oh  it  is  glorious 
To  have  a  giant's  strength;  but  tyrannous 
To  use  it  like  a  giant." — Shakespeare. 


5  2  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Every  boy  and  girl  owes  it  to  our  country  to  be  as 
strong  as  he  or  she  can,  to  develop  all  the  muscles  so  as 
to  be  ready  to  do  any  work  that  may  come,  and  ready 
to  help  the  old  and  the  ill  who  cannot  do  for  themselves. 
Some  people  are  naturally  stronger  than  others,  but 
we  can  all  strengthen  our  muscles  by  exercise.  When  a 
muscle  is  unused,  it  becomes  soft  and  flabby.  When  it 
is  used,  it  grows  more  and  more  powerful.  So  by 
exercising,  each  one  of  us  can  grow  stronger  and  more 
fit  for  useful  service  every  day. 

Many  of  us  may  not  be  called  upon  to  do  work  that 
needs  muscular  strength  and  endurance;  but  we  all  have 
some  work  to  do  in  the  world,  and  success  in  any  kind 
of  work  depends  on  being  well.  Exercising  the  muscles 
not  only  strengthens  the  muscles  themselves  but 
helps  all  the  other  parts  of  the  body.  When  you  run 
a  race  or  take  some  other  active  exercise,  you  breathe 
more  deeply,  your  heart  beats  faster,  the  blood  flows 
more  swiftly  through  the  different  organs,  and  after 
exercise  your  appetite  is  better  and  your  sleep  is 
sounder.  Exercise  is  essential,  then,  not  only  for 
strength  but  also  for  the  health  of  the  body  as  a  whole. 

Good  Kinds  of  Exercise. — ^Roller  skating,  bicycle 
riding,  ice  skating  and  coasting  in  winter,  baseball, 
prisoners'  base,  and  all  sorts  of  running  games,  swim- 
ming, climbing  trees,  and  long  walks — these  are  the 
things  that  make  the  muscles  grow  strong  and  the 
cheeks  rosy,  and  that  keep  the  heart  and  the  lungs  in 
good  condition. 

Above  all,  games  that  children  can  play  together  are 


HOW  THE  PARTS  OF  OUR  BODY  MOVE 


53 


good.  Such  games,  in  which  one  team  challenges  an- 
other team,  not  only  develop  physical  strength  but 
also  teach  you  how  to  do  your  best,  not  for  yourself 
but  for  the  team,  and  to  work  side  by  side  with  others 
for  a  common  end.    Some  one  once  said  that  the  vic- 


Fig.  23. — Outdoor  play  helps  to  make  the  body  strong. 

tory  of  Waterloo,  the  great  battle  in  which  the  English 
defeated  Napoleon,  was  won  on  the  playing  fields  of 
Eton  (a  famous  school  where  most  of  the  English 
officers  had  studied  when  they  were  boys). 

Keeping  in  Training. — If  we  want  to  be  strong  and 
well,  we  must  not  only  do  all  we  can  to  develop  our 
bodies  by  exercise,  but  we  must  also  avoid  anything 


54  HEALTHY  LIVING 

that  will  directly  harm  them.  There  are  many  bad 
habits  which  may  injure  the  health.  Sitting  up  too 
late  at  night,  eating  too  much  or  too  little,  and  nibbling 
at  candy  between  meals  are  examples  of  habits  formed 
by  children  which  have  injurious  effects  upon  the  health 
and  strength.  As  you  grow  older,  you  will  learn  that 
among  grown  people  there  is  one  habit  of  this  kind  that 
is  more  harmful  than  perhaps  any  other — the  use  of 
what  are  known  as  alcoholic  drinks,  such  as  whiskey, 
brandy,  wine,  ale,  and  beer.  These  drinks  all  contain 
a  poison  called  alcohol,  some  of  them  having  only  a 
little  of  it,  and  others  a  great  deal. 

If  people  use  alcoholic  drinks  in  large  amounts,  they 
are  so  poisoned  by  them  that  they  cannot  walk  easily 
or  talk  sensibly.  The  studies  made  by  scientific  men 
in  recent  years  have  shown  that  even  slight  amounts 
of  alcohol,  which  do  not  seem  to  have  any  effect  at 
all,  really  make  people  less  able  to  do  physical  or 
mental  work.  Therefore,  men  who  play  football  or 
row  at  college  and  have  to  be  all  the  time  at  their  best 
are  never  allowed  to  use  alcoholic  drinks,  and  according 
to  the  law  of  our  country  no  such  drinks  can  be  served 
to  any  soldier  or  sailor  in  the  uniform  of  the  LTnited 
States. 

We  can  be  sure  that  what  is  bad  for  the  athlete  and 
the  soldier  is  bad  for  everyone  else,  and  the  safest  rule 
for  those  who  would  keep  strong  and  well  is  to  use  no 
drinks  of  this  kind  at  any  time. 


HOW  THE  PARTS  OF  OUR  BODY  MOVE         55 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Describe  the  way  in  which  the  biceps  muscle  does  its  work. 

2.  What  is  a  tendon?    Where  have  you  seen  one? 

3.  What  are  some  of  the  things  done  for  you  by  the  unseen 
servants  inside  your  body? 

4.  What  was  the  story  told  by  the  Greeks  about  Hercules? 

5.  Tell  some  of  the  ways  in  which  strong  men  are  useful  in  the 
world  to-day. 

6.  George  and  Albert  and  their  little  sister  Jennie  lived  in  the 
country.  George  liked  to  ride  the  farm  horses  and  to  swim  in 
the  creek,  but  Albert  was  lazy  and  spent  most  of  his  time 
whittling  or  playing  marbles.  One  day  when  they  were  all  three 
walking  by  the  bank  of  the  river,  Jennie  went  too  near  the  edge 
and  fell  into  the  swift,  deep  water.  Tell  what  you  think  hap- 
pened next. 

7.  What  games  are  you  fondest  of?  WTiich  of  these  games 
do  you  think  help  most  to  make  strong,  fine  men  and  women? 

8.  What  is  meant  by  the  saying  that  the  battle  of  Waterloo 
was  won  on  the  playing  fields  of  Eton  (see  p.  53)? 

Q.  Why  are  college  athletes  not  allowed  to  use  alcoholic  drinks? 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  TELEPHONE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  BODY 

How  Messages  Travel  in  the  Body. — Reach  out  your 
finger  and  touch  something  on  your  desk  or  on  the 
table  near  you;  then  think  a  little  about  what  must 
have  been  going  on  in  your  body  to  make  that  simple 
movement  possible.  You  will  say  you  moved  your 
own  finger;  but  how  did  you  do  it? 

You  have  learned  that  the  actual  movement  of  the 
finger  was  the  result  of  the  action  of  muscles  in  the 
finger  itself  and  of  others  in  the  hand  and  arm.  If  you 
studied  Chapter  II  carefully,  you  will  remember,  too, 
that  the  muscles  contracted  because  a  message  was 
sent  out  through  a  slender  thread  called  a  nerve.  The 
nerve  carries  such  messages  very  much  as  a  telephone 
wire  carries  messages  from  one  place  to  another.  The 
nerves  are  to  be  found  running  all  through  the  different 
organs  of  the  body.  They  give  the  signal  that  sets  one 
part  or  another  in  action. 

There  is  another  sort  of  message  which  must  be  car- 
ried in  the  body,  the  message  which  tells  you  what  is 
going  on  in  various  parts  of  it.  If,  for  instance,  you 
prick  your  finger,  you  feel  the  pain.  Perhaps  you  may 
think  it  would  be  better  if  there  were  no  nerves  in  the 
body  to  bring  in  this  particular  kind  of  message.    Think 

about  it  a  little,  however,  and  see  if  it  is  not  a  good 

s6 


THE  TELEPHONE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  BODY       57 

thing  that,  when  any  part  of  the  body  is  hurt,  you  feel 
a  pain  at  once. 

How  the  Parts  of  the  Body  Work  Together. — Most  of 
the  movements  we  make,  require  the  action  not  of  a 
single  muscle  alone  but  of  a  number  of  different  groups 
of  muscles,  which  must  all  work  together  in  just  the 
right  way.  When  you  walk,  a  great  many  slight  move- 
ments must  be  made  to  keep  the  body  balanced.  If 
you  have  ever  watched  a  baby  learning  to  walk,  you 
will  realize  how  difficult  a  task  this  really  is.  When 
you  run  fast,  you  will  notice  that  your  breathing  be- 
comes deeper  and  that  your  heart  beats  faster.  You 
will  learn  later  why  this  is  necessary.  All  such  activ- 
ities, which  take  place  in  perfect  balance  without  your 
thinking  of  them  at  all,  are  brought  about  by  messages 
going  back  and  forth  in  the  body  along  the  nerves. 

In  old  times  when  a  general  was  fighting  a  battle, 
the  only  way  in  which  he  knew  what  was  going  on  in 
different  parts  of  the  field  was  by  watching  from  a  hill- 
side. He  received  news  of  more  distant  places  from 
messengers  who  would  come  galloping  up,  their  horses 
dripping  with  foam.  Often  a  battle  was  lost  because 
news  of  some  sudden  attack  of  the  enemy  came  too 
late  to  send  reenforcements  to  the  spot.  To-day  every 
part  of  the  battle  line  is  connected  with  the  general's 
Headquarters  by  field  telephones,  so  that  the  whole 
army  can  work  together  as  a  unit  to  advance  here  or 
give  way  there,  as  the  progress  of  the  battle  de- 
mands. 

The  nerves  serve  the  body  much  as  this  telephone 


58 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


system  serves  the  army,  making  it  possible  for  all  its 
parts  to  work  together  for  the  common  good. 


Fig.  24. — ^A  field  telephone  by  which  the  various  parts  of  an  army 
may  be  kept  working  harmoniously  together. 

The  Brain  and  the  Spinal  Cord. — ^All  the  messages 
from  the  army  field  telephone  system  we  have  been 
thinking  about,  come  in  at  last  to  Headquarters,  where 
the  commanding  officer  sits  and  directs  the  whole  battle. 


THE  TELEPHONE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  BODY       59 

The  Headquarters  for  the  human  body  is  the  brain, 
and  it  is  from  the  brain  that  the  messages  go  out  when 
you  make  up  your  mind  to  do  something  and  then  do 
it.  This  important  organ  is  a  mass  of  Hving  matter 
which  fills  the  skull.  Large  bundles  of  nerves  come  into 
it  from  the  eyes,  the  nose,  and  the  ears.  It  is  connected 
with  the  organs  in  the  lower  part  of  the  body  by  means 
of  the  spinal  cord,  a  thick  cord  of  substance  much  like 
that  in  the  brain  itself.  The  spinal  cord  extends  down 
through  the  center  of  the  backbone  (which  is  also  called 
the  spinal  column).  The  backbone,  you  remember,  is 
made  up  of  bones  shaped  like  rings,  and  it  is  through 
the  centers  of  these  rings  that  the  spinal  cord  passes. 
All  along  its  course,  bundles  of  nerves  enter  it  from  the 
various  organs  of  the  body. 

Reflex  Actions. — In  order  to  understand  a  little  better 
how  the  nervous  machinery  of  the  body  works,  let 
us  consider  what  happens  in  one  particular  case.  Sup- 
pose a  hot  dish  just  out  of  the  oven  is  placed  on  the 
table  and  you  reach  out  to  take  hold  of  it.  As  soon  as 
you  touch  the  plate,  you  feel  it  is  hot;  but  before  you 
have  time  to  think  about  it  at  all,  you  draw  your  hand 
quickly  away.    How  was  this  action  brought  about? 

In  the  first  place,  a  message  came  over  a  nerve  from 
the  tip  of  the  finger  that  touched  the  hot  dish,  bringing 
in  the  news  that  something  was  wrong.  In  the  spinal 
cord  the  news  was  passed  along  until  it  reached  the 
nerve  going  out  to  the  muscles  of  your  arm.  This  nerve 
sent  out  word  to  these  muscles  to  contract  and  pull 
your  arm  away.    There  are  always  two  parts  to  such 


6o 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


an  action,  which  is  called  a  reflex  action.  First,  a 
message  comes  in,  telling  of  something  that  has  hap- 
pened outside.  Second,  another  message  goes  out 
and  starts  an  action  that  will  save  some  part  of  the 
body  from  harm  or  discomfort. 

The  particular  reflex  we  have  been  speaking  about 
does  not  have  to  be  learned.  Any  child  will  draw  its 
hand  away  from  something  that  is  hot.     There  are 


Brain 


Spinal 
Cord 


Incoming  Message  from  Fingen 

Fig.  25. — How  the  nerve  messages  travel  in  a  reflex  action. 

many  other  reflex  actions  which  must  be  learned  by 
practice,  but  which,  once  they  are  mastered,  become 
natural  and  easy.  You  have  perhaps  learned  to  skate 
on  roller  skates  or  ice  skates,  or  to  ride  a  bicycle.  You 
remember  that  at  first  it  was  very  difficult  to  do  these 
things.  You  could  not  skate,  for  instance,  more  than 
a  few  steps  without  falling  down  or  holding  some 
one's  hand.  Gradually  it  became  easier  and  easier, 
and  now  perhaps  you  can  skate  off  without  thinking 
about  it  at  all.    It  is  just  as  easy  as  walking. 


THE  TELEPHONE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  BODY       6i 

Learning  to  skate  is  really  learning  to  balance  your- 
self. When  you  bend  or  lean  too  far  forward  or  side- 
ways, you  save  yourself  by  an  unconscious  movement 
the  other  way.  Every  movement  of  this  kind  is  a  re- 
flex action.  You  train  the  nerves  by  practice  so  that 
when  a  message  comes  in  that  the  body  is  bending 
too  far,  the  order  will  go  out,  quick  as  a  flash,  to  the 
right  group  of  muscles.  These  muscles  will  act  so  as 
to  swing  out  the  arm  or  leg,  or  to  bend  the  body  forward 
or  backward  just  enough  to  get  in  balance  again. 

There  is  one  other  kind  of  nervous  action  that  you 
ought  to  understand,  and  one  other  long  word  that  you 
must  learn,  the  word  inhibition.  Reflex  actions  are 
not  always  useful;  sometimes  they  must  be  checked  or 
controlled.  Suppose  the  hot  plate  we  have  been  think- 
ing about  was  not  too  hot  for  you  to  pick  it  up,  but  was 
hot  enough  to  be  quite  uncomfortable  after  you  had 
carried  it  halfway  across  the  room.  As  the  heat  got 
into  the  fingers,  some  children  by  a  simple  reflex  action 
would  drop  the  plate  on  the  floor  and  break  it.  I  hope 
you  would  not  drop  it,  however.  You  would  check  the 
reflex  if  you  could,  and  stand  the  pain  till  you  had  put 
the  plate  down  in  some  safe  place.  In  such  a  case,  the 
nerve  message  telling  the  muscles  to  drop  the  plate 
would  be  overruled  by  another  message  from  your 
central  nervous  system  saying,  "Stop!  Don't  do  it. 
We  can  hold  on  a  little  longer."  Such  an  order  to  stop 
is  an  inhibition. 

Inhibitions  are  usually  hard  at  first,  but  they  can 
be  learned  by  practice.     Some  children,  for  instance, 


62 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


have  the  habit  of  picking  at  their  Hps  or  their  fingers 
or  any  place  that  has  been  cut  or  bruised.  If  they  try, 
however,  they  can  soon  learn  not  to  do  this  unsightly 
and  dangerous  thing.  They  can  form  an  inhibition 
which,  after  a  time,  will  keep  their  fingers  away  from 


Fig.  26. — ^What  habits,  good  or  bad,  do  you  think  these  two  girls 
have  formed,  judging  by  what  you  can  see  in  the  pictures? 


such  places,  as  naturally  and  unconsciously  as  if  they 
had  never  had  the  bad  habit  at  all. 

Good  and  Bad  Habits. — Most  of  the  things  you  do, 
from  the  time  you  get  up  in  the  morning  till  you  go  to 
bed  at  night,  are  done  by  unconscious  habit,  by  reflexes 
and  inhibitions  which  have  been  trained  by  practice. 
You  do  not  have  to  make  up  your  mind  to  put  your 
clothes  on  in  the  morning  or  to  brush  your  hair  (I  hope). 
You  just  do  these  things  without  thinking  about  them 
at  all.    You  do  not  have  to  wonder  how  to  sret  to  school. 


THE  TELEPHONE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  BODY       63 


You  walk  down  the  familiar  streets  without  a  moment's 
hesitation. 

Since  habit  plays  so  large  a  part  in  our  lives — grown- 
ups as  well  as  children — it  is  very  important  indeed  to 
form  good  habits  and  not  bad  ones.  One  girl  may  be 
always  cheerful  and  pleasant,  another  cross  and  dis- 
agreeable.   One  boy  may  be  courteous  and  considerate, 


^pm^^jfpft 


:  \   tJAAft-^ 


Fig.  27. — ^WTiich  of  these  two  boys  do  you  think  will  grow  up  to  be 
the  more  useful  citizen? 

another  rough  and  rude.  It  is  all  a  matter  of  the  kind 
of  reflexes  and  inhibitions  they  have  practiced.  It  is 
just  as  easy  for  most  people  to  be  cheerful  and  polite 
as  cross  and  grouchy;  the  difference  is  merely  in  the 
habits  they  have  formed.  A  child  who  has  by  prac- 
tice learned  to  be  punctual  and  obedient  is  just  that 
much  better  off  than  one  who  has  not;  just  as  a  child 
who  has  learned  to  ride  a  bicycle  and  skate  is  better  off 
than  one  who  can  only  walk  and  run. 

Truthfulness  is  a  habit;  courage  is  a  habit;  unselfish- 
ness is  a  habit.     All  through  our  lives  happiness  and 


64  HEALTHY  LIVING 

success  for  ourselves  and  those  about  us  depend  very 
largely  on  whether  we  have  formed  in  youth  the  habit 
of  being  honest  and  brave  and  kind.  You  know  that 
a  soldier  cannot  be  sent  into  battle  until  he  has  been 
trained;  and  this  training  means  not  only  making  the 
muscles  strong  and  fit,  but  much  more.  It  means  learn- 
ing habits  of  neatness,  punctuality,  obedience,  courage, 
and  self-sacrifice.  Every  boy  or  girl  who  wants  to 
serve  our  country  can  be  training  himself  or  herself 
now  by  forming  the  habits  which  will  make  a  good 
citizen  in  the  days  to  come. 

The  Story  of  the  Boy  Who  Walked  around  Mont  St. 
Michel. — In  France  there  is  a  high  and  very  steep  rock 
with  a  church  on  the  top  of  it,  called  Mont  St.  Michel. 
Once  upon  a  time  when  bitter  wars  were  going  on, 
this  rock  was  captured  by  the  enemy,  and  the  leader 
of  the  invading  army  made  his  headquarters  in  the 
chapel  on  its  top.  Here  he  ordered  brought  to  him  the 
citizens  who  had  been  taken  prisoners,  and  among  them 
one  of  the  principal  men  of  the  village,  M.  de  Brette- 
ville  and  his  little  son,  Louis.  The  cruel  captain  threat- 
ened to  have  de  Bretteville  thrown  from  the  wall  over 
the  rock  to  punish  him  for  his  loyalty  to  his  own  people 
and  to  his  religion,  for  this  was  a  war  between  people 
of  different  religious  beliefs.  De  Bretteville  would  not 
yield,  and  neither  he  nor  his  brave  son  showed  any 
fear. 

"I  have  a  good  mind  to  throw  you  after  him,"  said 
the  captain  to  the  boy. 

"You  would  not  make  me  a  coward  if  you  did,"  said 


THE  TELEPHONE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  BODY       65 

Louis,  "and  I  would  gladly  leap  off  the  wall  myself  if  I 
could  save  my  father's  life  by  doing  it." 

One  of  the  other  officers  whispered  something  to  the 
captain,  and  he  turned  quickly  to  the  boy.  "We  will 
see  how  brave  you  really  are,"  he  said.  "There  is 
a  narrow  ledge  of  rock  outside  the  wall.  If  you  can 
Walk  around  the  rock  on  that  ledge,  I  will  set  both  you 
and  your  father  free." 

"No,  no,"  cried  de  Bretteville,  "I  will  not  have 
it.  I  would  rather  a  hundred  times  be  killed  my- 
self." 

"It  shall  be  so,  whether  you  like  or  not,"  replied  the 
captain,  "or  I  will  have  both  you  and  the  boy  thrown 
over." 

"Will  my  father  be  freed  if  I  make  the  attempt, 
whether  I  get  round  safely  or  not?"  asked  Louis. 

"He  will;  you  have  my  word  on  that." 

"Then  I  am  ready,"  said  Louis.  He  took  off  his 
shoes  and  stockings  and  was  lifted  over  the  wall  so  that 
he  stood  on  the  narrow  ledge  outside,  with  hundreds  of 
feet  of  steep  jagged  cliffs  below.  The  shelf  of  rock  on 
which  he  had  to  walk  was  in  places  only  a  few  inches 
wide,  and  he  could  keep  from  falling  only  by  clinging 
to  bits  of  projecting  stone  or  roots  and  branches  of 
bushes  growing  between  the  rocks.  Step  by  step  he 
made  his  way  onward,  never  looking  downward  into 
the  terrible  chasm,  but  carefully  and  skilfully  selecting 
the  places  to  put  his  feet  and  to  hold  on  with  his  hands. 
Even  the  soldiers  watched  every  step  with  eager  anxiety, 
hoping  that  the  brave  lad  would  succeed — ^and  perhaps 


66 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


you  can  imagine  the  suffering  of  his  father  while  the 
minutes  slowly  passed. 
Louis  came  at  last  to  a  place  where  there  seemed  no 

hope  of  getting  far- 
ther, for  the  ledge  be- 
came narrower  and 
narrower  and  he  could 
see  that  ahead  it  disap- 
peared entirely,  leav- 
ing nothing  but  a 
smooth  wall  of  rock. 
To  turn  back  was  im- 
possible, for  he  was 
already  on  a  ledge  only 
a  few  inches  wide. 

Slowly  and  carefully 
the  boy  looked  down- 
ward along  the  face  of 
the  cliff.  About  three 
feet  below,  he  saw  a 
jutting  point  of  rock 
from  which  another 
ledge  extended  on 
around  the  corner  of 
the  cliff.  He  measured  with  his  eye  the  distance  down- 
ward and  forward,  saw  that  there  was  a  holly  bush 
growing  out  from  the  rock  just  at  a  good  place  to  give 
a  handhold, — and  then  he  jumped.  He  landed  safely 
with  his  feet  on  the  ledge  and  the  holly  branches  in  his 
hand.    The  rest  of  the  way  was  easier,  and  at  last,  after 


Fig.  28. — How  Louis  walked  round  the 
wall  at  Mont  St.  Michel. 


THE  TELEPHONE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  BODY       67 

what  had  seemed  Hke  a  year,  but  was  really  only  fifteen 
minutes,  Louis  was  again  clasped  in  his  father's  arms. 
They  were  both  saved,  saved  by  the  courage  and  de- 
votion of  a  boy. 

I  always  remember  Louis  de  Bretteville  and  the  cliffs 
of  Mont  St.  Michel  when  I  think  of  habits.  It  was  the 
habit  of  strong  muscles  and  well-trained  nerves,  and 
above  all  the  habit  of  coolness  and  courage  and  the 
habit  of  loving  service,  that  made  it  possible  for  him 
to  do  this  splendid  deed. 

Rest  and  Sleep. — The  nerves  and  the  brain  require 
rest,  just  as  any  other  part  of  the  body  does.  If  you 
try  to  concentrate  on  one  thing  too  long,  you  soon  be- 
come tired,  and  your  work  should  be  arranged  so  that 
this  will  not  happen.  Short  periods  of  hard  work,  with 
rest  or  play  or  some  other  kind  of  occupation  between, 
will  enable  a  child  to  accomplish  most  in  the  long 
run. 

The  most  complete  kind  of  rest  we  can  get  is  that 
which  we  find  in  sleep.  A  child  of  your  age  should  have 
about  ten  hours  of  sleep  each  night.  If  you  do  not 
get  this  much  on  account  of  late  evening  work  or  play, 
you  are  pretty  sure  to  suffer  from  it  in  the  end. 

Alcohol  and  the  Nervous  System. — Something  was 
said  in  the  last  chapter  about  the  effect  of  alcohol  upon 
muscular  work.  Those  who  want  to  excel  at  physical 
games  must  avoid  alcohol,  but  alcoholic  drinks  are  even 
more  harmful  to  the  nerves  than  to  the  muscles.  In 
fact,  the  reason  why  alcohol  interferes  with  running  or 
jumping  or  any  other  athletic  exercise  is  probably  more 


68  HEALTHY  LIVING 

because  it  affects  the  nerves  which  control  the  muscles 
than  because  it  hurts  the  muscles  themselves. 

Alcohol  interferes  particularly  with  the  inhibitions, 
so  that  people  who  use  too  much  of  it  say  and  do  things 
they  never  would  think  of  saying  or  doing  if  they  had 
not  taken  alcohol.  The  use  of  alcohol  even  in  very 
slight  quantities  makes  the  reflexes  slower,  the  body 
more  clumsy,  and  the  mind  more  cloudy. 


Questions  tor  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Tell  what  happens  in  the  body  when  you  pick  up  a  pencil 
from  your  desk  in  school. 

2.  Sometimes  the  nerves  become  diseased  so  that  they  do  not 
bring  in  messages  of  pain  when  some  part  of  the  body  is  injured. 
What  serious  harm  might  happen  to  a  person  who  had  such  a 
disease  as  this? 

3.  What  part  of  the  body  is  like  the  field  telephone  used  in 
the  army? 

4.  W-liat  is  the  brain  and  what  is  the  spinal  cord?  Tell  where 
each  is  located  in  the  body. 

5.  John  stepped  into  his  bath  one  morning  and  found  the 
water  very  cold.  He  jumped  out  again  almost  as  soon  as  his 
feet  touched  the  water.    What  went  on  inside  his  body? 

6.  What  reflex  actions  can  you  think  of,  besides  the  ones 
described  on  page  59  and  in  Question  5? 

7.  Why  does  it  get  easier  and  easier  to  ride  a  bicycle  as  you 
practice  more  and  more? 

8.  The  boy  mentioned  in  Question  5  knew  that  a  cold  bath 
was  really  good  for  him.  So  after  drawing  back  at  first,  he  forced 
himself  to  get  into  the  cold  water  and  splashed  about  and  had  a 
fine  time.  How  did  he  control  the  reflex  that  made  him  jump  out 
first?    What  is  such  a  control  called? 


THE  TELEPHONE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  BODY       69 

Q.  What  is  a  habit?  Make  a  list,  first  of  all  the  good  habits, 
and  then  of  all  the  bad  habits  you  can  think  of. 

10.  Tell  in  your  own  words  the  story  of  the  boy  who  walked 
round  Mont  St.  Michel.    Why  was  Louis  able  to  do  what  he  did? 

11.  Why  do  we  need  sleep?  Keep  a  record  of  your  bedtimes 
and  getting-up  times  for  the  next  week  and  see  how  much  sleep 
you  are  getting. 

12.  What  is  the  effect  of  alcohol  upon  the  nervous  system? 


CHAPTER  VI 
HOW  WE  LEARN  ABOUT  THE  WORLD  OUTSIDE 

Spying  Out  the  Enemy. — In  war,  men  are  sent  up 
in  airplanes  as  observers,  to  find  out  what  is  going  on 
behind  the  Hnes  of  the  enemy.  These  airplanes  have 
been  called  the  eyes  of  the  army  and  the  navy.  They 
are  compared  to  our  eyes,  because  it  is  largely  by 
means  of  the  eyes  that  we  find  out  what  is  happening 
in  the  world  about  us. 

A  great  many  of  our  actions  are  the  direct  result  of 
something  that  is  going  on  outside  the  body.  You 
move  toward  the  fire  because  the  room  is  cold.  You 
run  out  to  the  kitchen  because  there  is  a  delicious  smell 
of  gingerbread  or  cookies  there.  You  hurry  to  school 
because  the  bell  is  ringing  for  the  last  time. 

How  do  you  find  out  that  the  room  is  cold  or  that 
there  is  a  good  smell  in  the  air  or  that  the  bell  is  sound- 
ing? Why,  you  feel  the  cold  and  smell  the  gingerbread 
and  hear  the  bell,  of  course,  you  say.  It  is  not  quite  a 
matter  of  course,  however;  it  is  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able things  about  the  human  body — this  power  of  find- 
ing out  what  is  going  on  in  the  world  about  us.  Try  to 
think  how  many  different  ways  you  have  of  finding  out 
what  is  happening,  and  what  the  different  objects  in 
the  room  are  really  like. 

The  Story  of  Helen  Keller. — We  can  understand 

better  the  importance  of  this  power  of  learning  what 

70 


HOW  WE  LEARN  ABOUT  THE  WORLD  OUTSIDE     71 

is  going  on  about  us  by  thinking  of  the  true  story  of  a 
little  girl — now  a  grown  woman — named  Helen  Keller. 
When  Helen  was  less  than  two  years  old,  she  had  a 
terrible  illness  which  left  her  without  the  power  of 
seeing  or  hearing  or  speaking.  She  could  smell  the 
flowers  in  the  garden,  but  she  did  not  know  what  they 


Fig.  29. — ^Airplanes  are  called  the  eyes  of  the  army  and  the  navy. 

looked  like.  She  could  feel  the  jar  of  the  shutting  of  a 
door  and  the  shaking  of  the  floor  made  by  footsteps, 
but  she  could  not  hear  a  voice.  She  clung  to  her  mother's 
dress  as  her  mother  went  about  her  work,  and  learned 
many  things  by  the  sense  -of  feeling.  She  found  that  a 
shake  of  the  head  meant  "No"  and  a  nod  "Yes"; 
that  a  pull  meant  "Come"  and  a  push  "Go."  She 
learned  that  other  people  did  not  communicate  in  this 
way,  but  did  something  with  their  lips,  for  her  fingers 
could  feel  the  movements  of  her  mother's  lips.     But 


72  HEALTHY  LIVING 

she  tried  in  vain  to  make  some  sound  by  moving  her  own 
lips.  She  learned  to  do  little  things  about  the  house, 
and  at  five  she  could  fold  and  put  away  the  clean  clothes 
when  they  came  home  from  the  laundry  and  pick  out 
her  own  clothes  from  the  rest.  As  she  grew  older,  how- 
ever, the  sense  of  being  unable  to  express  anything 
except  by  the  simplest  signs  became  almost  unbearable. 
She  felt  as  if  she  were  shut  up  in  a  prison. 

When  Helen  was  seven  years  old,  her  parents  found 
for  her  a  teacher  from  a  school  for  the  deaf  and  dumb 
in  Boston.  The  deaf  and  dumb  have  a  language  by 
which  they  talk  to  one  another  by  signs  made  with  the 
fingers.  This  teacher.  Miss  Sullivan,  after  playing  with 
Helen's  doll  for  a  little  while,  spelled  out  into  her  hand 
the  letters  d-o-1-1  in  this  sign  language.  Helen  quickly 
learned  to  make  these  movements,  though  she  had  no 
idea  at  first  that  they  meant  anything  at  all.  She 
learned  to  spell  out  other  words;  and  at  last  one  day 
when  she  felt  the  water  from  the  pump  running  over 
her  hand,  and  Miss  Sullivan  spelled  the  word  w-a-t-e-r, 
she  grasped  the  idea  that  everything  had  a  name  and 
that  she  could  express  the  name  by  her  fingers.  By 
these  movements  of  the  fingers  she  could  at  last  break 
down  the  wall  between  herself  and  all  the  world  outside. 

After  this,  Helen  made  rapid  progress.  She  was  soon 
able  not  only  to  talk  by  the  finger  language  but  to  read 
books.  There  are  books  especially  prepared  for  the 
blind,  in  which  the  letters  are  raised  so  that  it  is  pos- 
sible to  feel  their  shapes.  After  some  years  Helen 
learned  to  speak.    She  did  this  by  feeling  the  movements 


HOW  WE  LEARN  ABOUT  THE  WORLD  OUTSIDE     73 

of  the  tongue  and  lips  of  a  person  who  was  making  the 
sound  of  a  particular  letter,  and  imitating  the  move- 
ments with  her  own  lips  and  tongue.    At  last  this  girl 


Fig.  30. — ^Helen  Keller.  As  a  girl,  though  deaf, 
dumb,  and  bhnd'  she  learned  to  talk  and  to 
read  with  her  fingers  and  graduated  from 
RadcUffe  CoUege. 

made  such  wonderful  progress  that  she  succeeded  in 
graduating  from  Radcliffe  College.  By  the  use  of  a 
typewriter,  she  wrote  a  book  about  her  life  and  her 
education,  a  book  which  you  must  some  day  read,  in 
order  to  realize  what  this  blind  and  deaf  girl  accom- 


74 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


Eyelid. 


Retina 


plished  and  what  a  blessing  you  have  in  the  possession 
of  your  powers  of  hearing  and  sight. 

The  Sense  Organs. — The  power  of  learning  about 
things  in  the  world  around  us  depends  on  special  organs 
at  the  ends  of  the  nerves  which  are  called  the  sense 
organs. 

The  most  complicated  of  these  sense  organs  are  the 
eyes  wdth  which  we  see  and  the  ears  with  which  we 
hear.  There  are  also  special  sense  organs  of  taste  in 
the  tongue  and  of  smell  in  the  upper  part  of  the  nose. 
Organs  of  touch,  and  organs  by  which  we  feel  heat 
and  cold,  are  scattered  all  through  the  skin. 
The  Eyes  and  How  We  See  with  Them. — ^The  eye 

itself  is  a  sort  of  hollow 
ball  set  in  the  head, 
with  a  bundle  of  nerves 
running  from  it  into 
the  brain. 

At  the  front  of  the 
eyeball  is  a  window, 
through  which  the  light  enters  the  eye.  This  window  is 
the  dark  round  opening  in  the  middle  of  the  eye,  which 
is  called  the  pupil.  Around  this  window  is  a  circular 
curtain,  the  iris,  which  is  the  colored  ring  you  can  see 
in  a  person's  eye  between  the  pupil  and  the  white  part 
outside. 

If  you  will  look  at  the  eyes  of  a  person  who  has  been 
in  a  dark  room,  you  will  find  the  iris  is  only  a  narrow 
band  and  the  pupil  is  quite  large.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  one  has  been  out  in  the  bright  sun,  the  iris  will  be  wide 


^ptic  Nerve 


Fig.  31. — The  structure  of  the  eye. 


HOW  WE  LEARN  ABOUT  THE  WORLD  OUTSIDE     75 

and  the  pupil  small.  We  need  all  the  light  in  a  dark 
place,  so  the  iris  curtain  draws  back  to  let  in  as  much 
as  possible.  But  in  bright  light  the  curtain  closes 
around  the  pupil,  so  that  the  eye  will  not  be  injured 
by  too  much  glare. 

Just  behind  the  iris  is  a  part  of  the  eye  called  the  lens. 
This  is  made  of  a  substance  like  glass,  which  makes  a 
picture — of  whatever  you  look  at — on  the  extreme  back 
of  the  eye,  the  retina.  You  have  probably  seen  a 
stereopticon  or  magic  lantern,  and  you  know  that  the 
glass  lenses  inside  it  throw  on  a  screen  a  big  picture 
of  the  slide  that  has  been  put  behind  the  lenses.  In  a 
similar  way,  the  lens  in  the  eye  makes  upon  the  retina 
a  little  picture  of  the  part  of  the  room  in  front  of  you. 
From  the  retina,  the  nerves  carry  to  the  brain  messages 
telling  about  what  you  see. 

Helping  the  Eyes  to  do  Their  Work  Well.— The 
eyes  are  delicate  and  complicated  organs  and  very  often 
they  do  not  do  their  work  quite  perfectly. 

Many  children  have  poor  eyesight,  without  knowing 
it.  They  may  be  able  to  read  a  book  well,  but  the 
writing  on  the  blackboard  seems  blurred.  Such  children 
are  called  near-sighted;  they  can  see  things  well  that 
are  close  to  their  eyes  but  not  things  that  are  far  off. 
Other  children,  called  far-sighted,  can  see  well  across 
the  room,  but  their  eyes  hurt  when  they  read  or  sew. 
Often  children  are  backward  in  their  studies  and  are 
perhaps  thought  to  be  stupid,  when  really  the  trouble 
is  only  with  their  eyesight. 

If  the  eyes  do  not  see  clearly,  there  is  a  constant 


76  HEALTHY  LIVING 

strain  on  them.     The  result  is  often  a  headache  and 
sometimes  indigestion   and   other   troubles   that  you 
would  never  think  had  anything  to  do  with  the  eyes 
at  all. 
If  the  writing  on  the  blackboard  looks  blurred,  your 

o  r  L  c 


A  P  E  O  R 


U  P  R  T VZ  B 

Fig,  32. — See  whether  you  can  read  the  upper  line  when  some  one 
holds  the  book  up  30  feet  away,  the  middle  line  20  feet  away,  the 
lower  line  15  feet  away.    If  you  cannot,  you  need  glasses. 

eyes  must  be  at  fault.  If  you  have  to  hold  a  book  very 
close  to  your  eyes  when  you  read,  there  is  something 
wrong.  If  your  eyes  hurt  after  you  have  been  reading 
for  a  while,  if  your  eyesr  are  red  and  inflamed,  or  if 
you  have  many  headaches,  there  is  probably  some- 
thing the  matter  with  your  eyes.  You  should  have 
them  examined  at  once  by  a  physician  trained  in  this 


HOW  WE  LEARN  ABOUT  THE  WORLD  OUTSIDE    77 

work.  If  he  finds  anyttiing  wrong,  he  will  fit  you 
with  eyeglasses,  which  will  make  up  for  the  defects 
of  your  eyesight  and  enable  you  to  see  clearly. 

It  is  quite  wonderful  what  the  effects  of  eyeglasses 
are  on  the  children  who  need  them  (and  at  least  one 
child  out  of  every  live  does  need  glasses).  The  books 
and  the  blackboard  come  out  clearly;  discomfort  and 
headaches  vanish.  Often  a  child  who  was  dull  in  the 
schoolroom  and  listless  on  the  playground  becomes  one 
of  the  best  pupils  and  one  of  the  j oiliest  children  in  the 
school. 

Keeping  the  Eyes  in  Good  Condition. — Whether 
you  wear  glasses  or  not,  it  is  very  important  to  take 
good  care  of  the  e3^es.  Be  sure  that  you  do  not  injure 
them  by  using  them  in  an  improper  way.  Many  chil- 
dren do  serious  harm  to  their  eyesight  by  reading  or 
sewing  too  long  at  a  time,  or  by  using  the  eyes  in  a 
dim  light.  In  the  late  afternoon  it  is  easy  to  go  on 
reading  without  noticing  how  fast  the  light  is  failing, 
and  the  eyes  may  be  seriously  strained  by  this  prac- 
tice. It  is  harmful,  too,  to  read  by  a  flickering  un- 
steady light  or  in  a  railroad  train  or  street  car  where 
the  print  is  constantly  jiggling  about. 

Too  bright  a  light  may  be  just  as  harmful  to  the 
eyes  as  one  that  is  too  dim.  One  should  always  avoid 
facing  toward  a  window  or  a  lamp  or  sitting  in  such  a 
position  that  there  is  a  direct  glare  of  sunlight  on  one's 
work  or  the  pages  of  one's  book. 

The  proper  position  in  reading  or  sewing  is  to  sit 
with  the  light  coming  from  above  over  the  left  shoulder. 


78 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


The  book  or  work  should  be  held  about  twelve  inches 
away  from  the  eyes.  Lying  down  while  you  read  brings 
an  unnatural  strain  on  the  eyes. 

The  Ear  and  How  We  Hear. — ^The  outer  organ 
which  we  ordinarily  speak  of  as  the  ear  is  just  a  sort  of 
trumpet  to  catch  the  sound.  The  most  important  part 
of  the  ear  is  inside  and  quite  out  of  sight.    The  ear 

that  we  can  see  out- 
side opens  into  a 
tube,  at  the  end  of 
which  is  a  thin 
membrane,  some- 
what like  a  piece  of 
paper,  called  the  ear 
drum. 

When  a  person 
speaks  to  you,  or 
when  some  other 
noise  is  made,  the 
air  is  set  to  moving 
in  waves,  like  the 
waves  that  spread 
over  the  surface  of  a  pond  when  you  throw  a  stone  into 
it.  These  waves  strike  the  ear  drum  and  make  it  quiver, 
or  vibrate,  in  a  certain  way.  As  the  ear  drum  quivers, 
it  sets  up  a  similar  movement  in  a  liquid  inside  the  ear 
itself.  The  movement  of  this  liquid  in  turn  affects  the 
ends  of  nerves  in  the  ear,  which  carry  to  the  brain  the 
messages  that  are  called  sounds. 

Guarding  against  Diseases  of  the  Ear. — From  the 


Fig-  33' — How  the  light  should  be 
placed  and  how  you  should  hold 
your  book  when  reading. 


HOW  WE  LEARN  ABOUT  THE  WORLD  OUTSIDE     79 

back  of  the  throat  there  is  a  tube  that  runs  up  to  the 
inside  of  the  ear  behind  the  ear  drum.  Sometimes 
when  a  person  has  a  cold  in  the  head,  germs  may  work 
their  way  up  from  the  throat  through  this  tube  into 
the  middle  ear,  and  painful  disease  and  even  deafness 
may  result.  Any  stopped-up  feeling  or  rumbling  in  the 
ears,  earache,  or  a  discharge  from  the  ears  is  a  sign  that 
something  is  wrong.  The  doctor  should  be  consulted 
at  once  before  the  trouble  becomes  serious. 


Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Why  are  airplanes  called  "the  eyes"  of  the  army  or 
the  navy?  Could  they  be  called  "the  ears"  of  the  army  just 
as  well? 

2.  Tell  all  the  things  you  know  about  a  banana.  Then  tell 
what  organs  in  the  body  helped  you  to  find  out  these 
things. 

3.  Who  is  Helen  Keller?    What  has  she  done? 

4.  If  your  eyes  were  closed,  how  could  you  tell  when  some  one 
opened  the  window  of  the  schoolroom?  Could  you  tell  if  your 
ears  were  stopped  up,  too?  Suppose  it  were  a  cold  day  outside. 
Could  you  tell,  then,  if  your  eyes  were  closed  and  your  ears 
stopped  up? 

5.  Make  a  picture  of  the  eye  as  it  would  look  if  it  were  cut 
in  two. 

6.  What  is  the  lens?  What  is  the  retina?  What  is  the  use  of 
each? 

7.  What  difference  is  there  between  the  eye  of  a  person  who 
has  been  in  a  dark  room  and  one  who  has  been  out  in  the  bright 
sun?    How  is  this  difference  caused? 

8.  Lucy  always  has  a  headache  after  reading  for  a  long  time. 
George  can  never  make  out  clearly  what  the  teacher  writes  on 


8o  HEALTHY  LIVING 

the  blackboard.  What  is  the  matter  with  each?  What  ought 
to  be  done  about  it? 

9.  What  can  you  do  to  keep  your  eyes  in  good  condition? 

ID.  What  is  the  ear  drum?    Of  what  use  is  it? 

II.  Susan  had  a  bad  cold  and  afterward  an  earache.  What 
had  probably  happened? 


CHAPTER  VII 
FUEL  FOR  THE  BODY 

The  Energy  in  Foods. — ^We  have  learned  in  Chapter 
II  that  the  body  needs  food  to  keep  it  going,  just  as  an 
automobile  needs  gasoline  or  a  locomotive  needs  fuel. 
The  energy  of  the  body,  the  strength  which  moves  the 
arms  and  legs,  keeps  the  heart  beating  and  the  other 
organs  working — this  energy  all  comes  from  the  food. 
From  the  food,  too,  the  body  gets  its  heat,  just  as  the 
heat  of  a  house  comes  from  the  coal  put  into  the  fur- 
nace. Without  food,  a  person  soon  becomes  weak  and 
sick  and  would  finally  die. 

Children  need  food,  not  only  to  keep  the  body  going 
from  day  to  day,  but  to  make  it  grow.  All  the  growth 
that  the  body  makes,  as  a  child  becomes  a  man  or 
woman,  is  built  up  out  of  the  food. 

Do  you  remember  that  the  first  thing  Robinson 
Crusoe  did  was  to  swim  out  to  the  wreck  and  get  some 
biscuits  to  eat  and  some  bread  and  rice  and  cheese? 
Do  you  remember  how  he  shot  goats  and  gathered 
grapes  and  caught  turtles  to  eat,  and  how  glad  he  was 
when  the  barley  he  had  planted  came  up  so  that  he 
could  make  some  bread?  He  knew  that  he  could  not 
keep  alive  on  the  desert  island  unless  he  provided  food 
for  himself. 

The  body  gets  a  great  deal  of  energy  when  we  eat 


82 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


certain  kinds  of  food,  while  from  others  it  can  get  very 
Httle.  You  would  have  to  eat  several  whole  tomatoes, 
for  instance,  before  you  could  get  as  much  energy  as 
one  lump  of  sugar  would  supply.  The  men  and  women 
who  study  foods  and  the  food  needs  of  the  body  have 


Fig.  34. — Each  of  the  portions  of  food  shown  in  the  picture  will  give 
the  body  about  the  same  amount  of  energy.  They  include:  an 
ordinary  serving  of  beans,  3  lumps  of  sugar,  i  large  banana, 
II  double  peanuts,  i  large  egg,  i  potato,  i  chop,  2  slices  of  bread, 
I  orange,  2  apples,  ^j ^^  of  a  glass  of  milk,  i  pat  of  butter,  and 
an  average  serving  of  oatmeal. 

a  way  of  measuring  the  amount  of  energy  supplied  by 
different  kinds  of  foods.  They  have  arranged  all  the 
common  foods  in  classes,  according  to  the  amount  of 
energy  they  will  supply. 


FUEL  FOR  THE  BODY 


83 


The  Importance  of  Different  Kinds  of  Foods. — In  or- 
der to  be  well  and  strong,  it  is  not  enough  to  have  a  cer- 
tain total  amount  of  food  energy.  We  must  have  also 
a  proper  variety  of  foods.  The  body  needs  certain 
special  things  which  we  can  get  from  some  foods  and 


Eig.  35. — A  group  of  New  York  schoolboys  being  served  with  luncheon 
in  an  experiment  to  determine  the  best  diet  which  can  be  provided 
for  a  child  at  a  given  cost. 

not  from  others.  You  could  not  keep  healthy  long  if 
you  lived  on  nothing  but  twenty  dishes  of  cereal  a  day 
or  twenty  pats  of  butter  or  twenty  potatoes,  even 
though  you  might  get  the  food  energy  you  need. 

There  is  a  very  important  kind  of  food  called  pro- 
tein (pro'  te  in) ,  which  is  found  in  eggs  and  meat  and 
beans,  but  not  in  sugar  or  butter  or  cereals,  and  only 
to  a  slight  extent  in  bread.    You  need  a  certain  amotmt 


84  HEALTHY  LIVING 

of  these  protein  foods.  You  need,  also,  lime  and  iron  and 
other  things  which  are  found  in  fruits  and  vegetables, 
and  to  a  less  extent  in  cereals  and  meats.  Milk  is  the 
most  perfect  food  we  have,  for  it  contains  all  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  nourishment  our  bodies  require.  Every 
child  should  drink  a  pint  or  more  of  milk  each  day. 

In  addition  to  the  ordinary  liquid  foods,  such  as 
milk,  it  is  important  to  drink  plenty  of  water,  for  the 
body  needs  an  ample  supply  of  water  in  order  to  keep 
in  good  health.  Every  child  should  drink  at  least  three 
glasses  of  water  a  day,  and  more  in  hot  weather. 

Bering's  Voyage  into  the  Arctic. — Bering  Sea,  about 
which  you  will  study  in  your  geography,  was  named 
for  a  famous  Arctic  explorer,  one  of  the  adventurous 
men  who  sailed  into  the  unknown  northern  seas  to 
find  out  about  the  strange  frozen  countries  near  the 
North  Pole.  On  June  4,  1741,  he  set  out  on  one  of 
these  voyages  of  discovery  in  a  ship  called  the  St.  Peter, 
with  a  crew  of  seventy  men,  and  with  another  ship, 
the  St.  Paul,  as  a  companion.  On  June  20,  while  they 
were  running  into  the  Gulf  of  Alaska,  a  heavy  storm 
drove  the  St.  Paul  to  the  southward,  and  the  St.  Peter, 
after  cruising  about  and  waiting  for  a  time,  pushed  on 
alone  to  the  north.  More  heavy  storms  drove  the  ship 
two  hundred  miles  out  of  its  course,  and  October  found 
Bering  still  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Aleutian  Islands. 
As  he  once  more  tried  to  make  his  way  north,  he  met 
a  new  difficulty.  His  men  began  to  fall  sick.  The 
disease  began  with  extreme  weakness  "making  the  vic- 
tims spiritless  and  indifferent  to  everything,  preferring 


FUEL  FOR  THE  BODY  85 

to  lie  down  and  die  rather  than  to  move  about."  Two 
deaths  occurred,  and  at  last  Bering  had  to  give  up  and 
return  home  with  scarcely  enough  well  men  in  the  crew 
to  sail  the  ship. 

The  disease  from  which  these  men  suffered  is  called 
scurvy.  We  know  to-day  that  it  was  caused  by  a  very 
simple  thing — ^by  the  fact  that  the  diet  of  canned  and 


1 
- 

i 

i  ] 

*r^ 

''^  jf^ ' 

,u 

^ 

■..ill.  % ,  <■-■,, 

ji  V 

i^ 

w 

SSb 

?* 

' 

Fig.  36.— Explorers  in  the  frozen  North  used  to  suffer  severely 
from  a  disease  called  scurvy,  which  was  due  to  the  lack  of  fresh 
fruits  and  vegetables  in  their  diet. 

preserved  foods  on  which  these  men  lived,  though  it 
contained  plenty  of  energy,  was  lacking  in  certain  special 
things  that  are  necessary  to  keep  people  well.  Scurvy 
was  a  very  common  disease  in  old  times,  not  only  in 
the  Arctic  but  on  all  long  voyages  in  which  fresh  foods 
could  not  be  obtained.  On  recent  polar  expeditions 
and  on  long  sea  voyages  to-day,  scurvy  is  practically 


86  HEALTHY  LIVING 

unknown,  because  fresh  meat  or  vegetables  or  fruit 
juices  are  provided  to  supply  the  special  kinds  of  foods 
that  will  prevent  that  disease. 

Where  Your  Foods  Come  From. — Men  in  Florida 
and  Oregon  have  planted  orange  groves  and  apple 
orchards  that  you  may  have  fresh  fruit  for  your  break- 
fast. Others  have  cultivated  oat  fields  in  the  Middle 
West,  and  still  others  have  worked  in  the  mills  to  pre- 
pare from  the  oats  the  cereal  you  need.  Still  others 
have  grown  the  wheat  and  made  the  flour  from  which 
your  bread  was  mixed.  Sugar  beets  have  been  grown 
in  Michigan,  and  dairy  farms  have  been  operated  in 
your  own  state,  that  your  cereal  might  be  sweetened 
and  your  glass  of  milk  kept  full.  Your  cocoa  may  have 
been  brought  from  South  America,  and  your  rice  per- 
haps from  Japan  on  the  other  side  of  the  Pacific. 

You  need  all  these  things,  and  many  more,  in  order 
to  keep  healthy.  You  ought  to  try  your  best  to  learn 
to  eat,  and  to  like,  all  the  different  kinds  of  good  foods 
that  are  brought  into  your  home  from  the  near  and  the 
distant  regions  of  the  earth. 

An  Ideal  Diet. — Three  good  meals  for  a  child  of  ten 
or  twelve  years  of  age  would  be  about  as  foUows: 

A  good  breakfast  would  include : 

1.  Some  fruit  (an  orange  or  an  apple,  a  baked 

banana  or  stewed  prunes). 

2.  A  well  cooked  cereal  (oatmeal  is  the  best). 

3.  Two  slices  of  toast  or  bread  and  butter. 

4.  A  glass  of  milk. 

A  soft-boiled  egg  may  be  added,  if  desired. 


FUEL  FOR  THE  BODY  87 

For  dinner  there  should  be : 

1.  A  helping  of  meat  or  fish  or  omelet  or  scrambled 

eggs. 

2.  A  baked  potato. 

3.  A  helping  of  spinach,  carrots,  peas,  or  some 

other  green  vegetable. 

4.  Bread  (not  too  fresh)  or  crackers  and  butter. 

5.  A  glass  of  milk  or  a  cup  of  cocoa. 

6.  A  simple  dessert  (such  as  cornstarch  pudding, 

junket,  baked  custard,  or  rice  pudding). 
A  good  supper  would  include : 

1.  A  bowl  of  some  thick  soup,  or  milk  toast. 

2.  A  simple  salad  of  fresh  fruit  or  vegetables,  if 

possible. 

3.  Bread  and  butter. 

4.  A  baked  apple  or  some  stewed  fruit. 

Food  Saving  in  War  Time. — As  a  result  of  the  ruin 
wrought  in  the  fertile  fields  of  France,  Belgium,  Russia, 
and  Roumania  by  the  great  war  and  because  so  many 
millions  of  men  have  had  to  spend  their  time  in  de- 
fending their  countries  instead  of  cultivating  the 
soil,  the  world  supply  of  food  has  run  very  short  in  the 
last  few  years.  We  in  the  United  States  who  have  a 
surplus  must  do  our  very  best  to  save  all  the  food  we 
can  for  the  people  in  Europe  who  will  need  it  so  badly — 
after  the  war  as  well  as  during  the  war. 

Above  all,  we  want  to  save  wheat,  meat,  fats,  and 
sugar,  for  these  are  the  foods  needed  by  the  peoples  of 
France  and  the  other  countries  of  Europe.    We  should 


88  HEALTHY  LIVING 

be  very  careful  not  to  waste  any  good  food,  such  as 
scraps  of  bread  or  bits  of  meat  or  fat. 

In  place  of  these  foods  that  are  needed  in  Europe, 
we  should  substitute  foods  that  cannot  easily  be  sent 
across  the  ocean,  and  foods  which  the  people  over  there 


Fig.  37. — The  wheat  fields  of  America  must  feed  the  French  and 
the  Belgians  and  the  English  as  well  as  ourselves. 

do  not  know  how  to  use.  We  should  eat  fish  and  eggs 
and  milk,  instead  of  meat.  We  should  eat  com  bread 
and  potatoes,  instead  of  wheat  bread,  because  wheat 
is  what  England  and  France  and  Belgium  particularly 
lack.  We  should  not  use  any  more  butter  and  sugar 
than  we  really  need. 

Some  Food  Habits  to  be  Avoided. — ^The  digestive 
system  of  the  body  works  best  if  we  eat  at  regular 


FUEL  FOR  THE  BODY 


89 


times.      Meals  should  be  served  at  the  same   hour 
every  day,  and  no  food  should  be  taken  except  at 
mealtimes.     Nibbling  between  meals  is  a  bad  habit. 
If    a    child    is    hun- 
gry   in    the    middle 
of    the    morning,    a 
glass    of    milk    and 
some    crackers    may 
be    made    a    regular 
fourth  meal. 

The  bad  food  habit 
which  children  are 
most  likely  to  form 
is  the  eating  of  too 
much  of  certain  high- 
ly flavored  foods — 
pickles,  sweets,  and 
the  like.  The  result 
of  this  is  that  they 
have  no  appetite  left 
for  the  good  nour- 
ishing foods — bread, 
cereals,  meat,  milk, 
and      vegetables. 

Fried  foods,  rich  fat  meats,  and  pastry  are  bad 
for  children,  except  in  very  small  amounts.  Tea, 
coffee,  and  other  stimulants  should  of  course  be 
avoided.  They  may  do  harm  to  grown  people,  and 
they  are  very  harmful  for  children. 


Fig.  38. — ^Herbert  C.  Hoover,  Food  Ad- 
ministrator of  the  United  States,  in 
charge  of  the  campaign  to  save 
food  for  the  starving  people  of 
Europe. 


90  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Why  do  you  need  food? 

2.  Look  carefully  at  the  pictures  in  Fig.  34  and  see  which  of 
the  foods  shown  there  yield  a  given  amount  of  energy  from 
the  smallest  amount  of  food.  Of  which  foods  would  you  have 
to  eat  the  most,  to  get  a  given  amount  of  energy? 

3.  Why  is  milk  a  good  food?  How  much  milk  should  you 
drink  each  day?    About  how  much  do  you  drink  each  day? 

4.  Why  did  Bering  have  to  turn  back  from  his  Arctic  explora- 
tion? What  do  Arctic  explorers  do  nowadays  to  avoid  such 
difficulties? 

5.  Write  down  what  you  eat  for  breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper 
for  the  next  two  or  three  days,  and  see  how  closely  it  corresponds 
with  the  list  of  foods  on  pages  86  and  87. 

6.  Why  has  the  world  been  in  such  great  need  of  food  since 
the  great  war  began?    What  should  Americans  do  about  it? 

7.  What  should  we  eat  instead  of  meat?  Instead  of  wheat 
bread? 

8.  George  is  very  fond  of  sweets  and  sucks  a  piece  of  candy 
every  time  he  gets  a  chance.  What  do  you  suppose  happens 
when  George' sits  down  at  the  dinner  table?  What  do  you  think 
will  be  the  effect  on  his  health? 


CHAPTER  VIII 
WHAT  HAPPENS  TO  THE  FOOD  IN  THE  BODY 

Preparing  Food  for  the  Body. — ^You  eat  a  great  many 
different  kinds  of  foods  during  the  day — Hquid  foods 
such  as  milk,  soft  foods  such  as  cereals,  and  perhaps 
some  quite  hard  foods  like  nuts  or  hard  crackers.  You 
know  that  in  some  way  these  foods  supply  the  energy 
for  your  daily  life  and  that  they  are  even  built  up  into 
the  organs  of  your  body.  You  are  growing,  year  by 
year  and  month  by  month,  and  every  part  of  your  body 
is  getting  bigger.  The  food  you  eat  supplies  the  mate- 
rial for  this  growth ;  but  it  is  not  at  all  an  easy  thing  to 
change  oatmeal  and  poached  eggs  and  milk  toast  into 
the  muscles  and  nerves  of  a  boy  or  girl. 

The  food,  after  being  swallowed,  passes  into  a  tube 
called  the  alimentary  canal,  and  before  it  gets  really 
into  the  blood  where  it  can  be  used,  it  must  pass 
through  the  walls  of  the  alimentary  canal.  In  order 
to  do  this,  the  food  must  all  be  changed  to  a  liquid 
form. 

This  process  of  changing  the  food  so  that  the  body 
can  use  it  is  called  digestion.  It  is  brought  about  by 
the  action  of  the  digestive  juices,  which  are  liquids 
prepared  in  the  walls  of  the  alimentary  canal  and  in 
special  organs  connected  with  it.  These  liquids  have 
the  power  of  changing  the  foods  in  such  a  way  that 

91 


92 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


Mouth 


\^— Pharynx 


I Esoph  ay  as 


they  can  be  passed  through  the  walls  of  the  alimen- 
tary canal  and  taken  into  the  blood. 

The  action  of  the  digestive 
juices  may  be  shown  by  a 
simple  experiment.  Take  two 
glass  test  tubes,  and  in  each 
put  a  piece  of  meat  and  a 
little  water.  To  the  second 
test  tube  add  some  of  the 
digestive  juice  extracted  from 
the  stomach  of  a  calf.^  After 
the  tubes  have  stood  for 
half  an  hour  in  a  warm 
place,  the  meat  in  the  first 
tube  will  look  just  as  it  did 
at  the  beginning,  but  the 
tube  containing  the  diges- 
tive juice  will  look  cloudy 
and  soft  and  the  liquid  will 
be  discolored.  This  shows 
that  the  meat  is  being  dis- 
solved, or  changed  into  liquid 
form,  by  the  digestive  juice. 

You  can  easily  observe 
the  action  of  one  of  the 
digestive  juices  in  your  own 
body.  Chew  a  piece  of  bread  very  slowly  and  thoroughly 
and  see  if  you  can  notice  a  change  in  taste.  While  you 
chew,  a  digestive  juice  in  the  mouth  becomes  mixed 

^  A  solution  of  pepsin  and  two  per  cent  hydrochloric  acid. 


Intestine 

Fig.  39. — The  alimentary  canal 
and  its  principal  parts. 


WHAT  HAPPENS  TO  THE  FOOD  IN  THE  BODY    9 


mwwyD^HIH^^ 


with  the  bread.  The  starch  in  the  bread  is  changed 
to  sugar  by  the  juice.  Do  you  not  notice  that  the 
bread  tastes  sweeter  as  this  change  takes  place? 

Parts  of  the  Alimen- 
tary Canal. — The  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the 
ahmentary  canal  are 
so  important  that  you 
ought  to  learn  the 
names  of  the  principal 
ones,  even  though  some   kv^:   :■        1 ,'  A 

of  these  names  are  long 

1  1       J  ,  -L         Fig.  40. — The  size  of  a  child's  stomach. 

and  hard  to  remember. 

The  general  arrangement  of  the  parts  of  the  alimen- 
tary canal  is  shown  in  Fig.  39.  The  food,  after  it  is 
swallowed,  passes  first  down  a  long  slender  tube  called 
the  esophagus  into  a  large  bag  or  sac  called  the  stomach. 
From  the  stomach,  the  food  passes  gradually  out  into 
a  long  coiled  tube,  the  small  intestine,  and  from  there 
into  a  larger  tube,  the  large  intestine. 

Digestion  in  the  Mouth. — Two  important  steps  in  the 
process  of  digestion  are  taken  in  the  mouth  before  the  food 
is  swallowed.  First  of  all,  it  is  broken  up  and  softened 
by  the  action  of  the  teeth.  Secondly,  it  is  mixed  with 
the  digestive  juice  of  the  mouth,  which  begins  the  diges- 
tion of  the  food  by  changing  the  starch  in  it  to  sugar. 

It  is  very  important  to  chew  the  food  thoroughly 
before  it  is  swallowed,  if  the  rest  of  the  digestive  system 
is  to  be  kept  in  good  working  order.  The  stomach  is 
meant  to  digest  soft,  well  chewed  pulp,  and  if  solid 


94  HEALTHY  LIVING 

food  is  forced  down  in  lumps,  there  is  likely  to  be 
trouble.  You  remember,  from  ^Esop's  fable  that  was 
discussed  in  the  second  chapter  of  this  book,  how  the 
stomach  depends  on  the  other  organs  of  the  body  to  help 
it  in  its  work.  One  of  the  principal  things  it  depends 
upon  is  the  vigorous  and  thorough  action  of  the  teeth 
upon  the  food  that  is  to  be  sent  down  to  it  for  digestion. 

Another  reason,  though  a  less  important  one,  for 
thorough  chewing  of  the  food  is  the  fact  that  the  food 
tastes  much  better  and  we  enjoy  it  more  if  it  is  eaten 
in  this  way.  If  you  have  been  in  the  habit  of  bolting 
your  food,  at  your  next  meal  try  eating  it  quite  slowly 
and  chewing  it  thoroughly.  See  if  you  do  not  get  more 
pleasure  out  of  it. 

Digestion  in  the  Stomach. — ^The  stomach  is  so  large 
in  comparison  with  other  parts  of  the  alimentary  canal 
that  it  serves  as  a  sort  of  storehouse  for  food.  We  need 
such  a  storehouse  because  the  food,  eaten  in  large 
amounts  at  mealtimes,  must  be  digested  slowly.  It 
passes  gradually  from  the  stomach  to  the  intestines. 
But  though  the  storehouse  is  large,  it  cannot  store  the 
food  of  an  over-hearty  meal  without  making  trouble. 

In  the  walls  of  the  stomach,  there  are  strong  muscles. 
These  muscles,  by  contracting,  keep  the  food  moving 
round  and  round  so  as  to  break  it  up  into  a  thin  paste. 
At  the  same  time  more  digestive  juices  are  added  to  the 
food  (particularly  the  kind  of  juices  that  dissolve  meat^ 
as  shown  in  the  experiment  described  on  page  92). 

After  the  food  has  been  churned  up  in  this  way,  and 
the  digestive  juices  have  acted  upon  it  for  a  time,  it 


WHAT  HAPPENS  TO  THE  FOOD  IN  THE  BODY    95 

is  squeezed  out  from  the  stomach  into  the  small  in- 
testine. The  last  of  the  food  taken  at  an  ordinary  meal 
passes  out  of  the  stomach  and  into  the  intestine  about 
four  hours  after  it  is  eaten. 

Digestion  in  the  Intestines. — We  have  seen  how  nec- 
essary the  stomach  is  as  an  organ  of  digestion.  The 
small  intestine  plays  an  even  more  important  part 
in  the  process.  This  portion  of  the  alimentary  canal  is 
slender,  but  it  is  very  long.  The  food  takes  ten  or 
twenty  hours  to  pass  through  it. 

In  the  course  of  its  passage  through  the  small  in- 
testine, the  food  mass  is  mixed  with  more  digestive 
juices.  Some  of  these  juices  come  from  the  walls  of  the 
intestine  itself.  Some  come  from  two  organs,  the  liver 
and  the  pancreas,  which  pour  them  into  the  intes- 
tine. By  the  time  the  food  has  passed  through  the 
small  intestine,  most  of  the  digestible  matter  in  it  has 
been  changed  into  a  liquid  form. 

Meanwhile  the  digested  foods  are  being  absorbed, 
or  taken  in,  through  the  walls  of  the  alimentary  canal 
into  the  blood  in  the  blood  vessels.  On  one  side  of  the 
thin  wall  of  the  alimentary  canal  is  the  food,  now  di- 
gested and  made  liquid.  On  the  other  side  of  this  wall 
is  the  blood.  The  food  passes  through  the  wall  into 
the  blood  by  a  process  called  absorption.  As  the 
small  intestine  is  very  long,  there  is  ample  time  for 
all  the  digested  food  to  be  absorbed  there. 

In  the  large  intestine  there  is  little  more  that  needs 
to  be  done,  except  to  store  the  undigested  waste  mate- 
rial until  it  is  discharged. 


96 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


The  Wastes  of  the  Body. — ^There  are  two  kinds  of 
wastes  that  must  be  regularly  gotten  rid  of  by  the  body. 
One  kind  is  the  undigested  material  from  the  alimentary 
canal.  The  other  wastes  are  formed  in  the  organs  them- 
selves in  the  course  of  their  daily  activity.    Some  of  the 


■  . 

;: " :'^M 

fe'. 

'^'.*-l 

i:,al 

i. 

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p 

Kit  M *  :,,.:  4 

■':      %? 

r^j 

wH^f  "  '^'l 

^H^' 

J 

H 

H 

■IB 

t.jrr 

^ 

nMi^''^. 

■  'W^:''  ^^ 

i  ^^^^^ 

i 

■ 

1    •' 

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t 

stW'' 

j^j^J^ 

m 

1 

Ss 

iiWil 

Fig.  41. — ^A  calm  and  happy  frame  of  mind  helps  to  make 
digestion  easy. 

wastes  of  this  second  kind  are  discharged  into  the  air 
which  we  breathe  out.  Some  are  discharged  in  the 
perspiration  formed  by  the  skin.  Some  are  discharged 
into  the  alimentary  canal  by  the  liver,  a  large  organ 
which  lies  just  above  the  stomach  and  empties  into  the 
small  intestine;  and  the  rest  are  gotten  rid  of  by  way  of 
the  kidneys. 

The  kidneys  are  two  bean-shaped  organs  which  take 


WHAT  HAPPENS  TO  THE  FOOD  IN  THE  BODY    97 

out  water  and  certain  waste  materials  from  the  blood 
and  discharge  them  into  a  pouch  called  the  bladder. 
The  fluid  formed  by  the  kidneys  is  called  the  urine. 
The  bladder  should  be  emptied  about  six  times  a  day. 

Keeping  the  Digestion  in  Good  Working  Order. — If 
the  digestive  machinery  is  to  be  kept  in  good  working 
order,  it  is  of  course  necessary  that  it  should  not  be 
supplied  with  too  much  food  or  with  the  wrong  kind 
of  food.  It  is  also  important  not  to  exercise  violently 
just  after  eating,  for  that  prevents  the  digestive  ma- 
chinery from  working  properly.  A  cheerful,  pleasant 
frame  of  mind  helps  to  make  digestion  easy.  Mealtimes 
should  be  times  for  pleasant  talk  and  leisurely  enjoy- 
ment, not  for  the  hurried  snatching  of  a  bolted  meal. 

Another  thing  that  is  very  important  for  the  health 
of  the  digestive  system  and  the  body  as  a  whole  is  the 
emptying  of  the  large  intestine  by  regular  movements 
of  the  bowels.  If  the  undigested  food  remains  too 
long  in  the  large  intestine,  it  decays,  and  poisons  are 
formed.  These  poisons  may  be  absorbed  into  the  body. 
A  great  many  people  have  headaches  and  feel  tired  and 
half  sick  from  this  cause.  A  movement  of  the  bowels 
at  least  once  a  day  and  at  a  regular  time  is  one  of  the 
most  useful  health  habits  that  can  be  formed. 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  What  is  digestion?    Why  is  digestion  necessary? 

2.  When  a  person  experiences  pain  or  discomfort  as  a  result 
of  overeating,  we  call  it  indigestion.    Why? 

3.  What  do  the  digestive  juices  do?    Give  an  example. 


98  HEALTHY  LIVING 

4.  What  are  the  principal  parts  of  the  alimentary  canal? 

5.  Eleanor  takes  her  time  at  the  table,  laughs  and  talks  and 
chews  her  food  thoroughly.  Peter,  who  is  generally  late  to  meals, 
bolts  his  food  and  runs  away  as  soon  as  possible.  Which  do  you 
think  will  have  the  better  digestion  when  they  grow  up?    Why? 

6.  What  processes  of  digestion  go  on  in  the  mouth? 

7.  What  can  you  learn  from  the  picture  on  page  93  about  the 
harmfulness  of  eating  too  much  at  one  meal? 

8.  What  happens  to  the  food  in  the  stomach? 

9.  What  happens  to  the  food  in  the  small  intestine? 

10.  Of  what  use  is  the  liver? 

11.  What  are  some  of  the  things  that  you  can  do  to  keep  your 
digestion  in  good  order? 


CHAPTER  IX 
KEEPING  THE  TEETH  IN  GOOD   CONDITION 

The  Uses  of  the  Teeth. — Do  you  know  what  kind  of 
teeth  a  dog  or  a  cat  has,  and  how  they  differ  from  the 
teeth  of  a  cow  or  a  horse? 

The  teeth  of  the  dog  and  the  cat  are  sharply  pointed, 
so  that  they  can  be  used  for  tearing  and  cutting.  The 
teeth  of  the  horse  are  flat  and  are  made  for  grinding 
things  into  a  pulp.  In  each  case  the  teeth  are  of  just 
the  kind  needed  to  work  on  the  kind  of  food  the  animal 
eats.  A  dog  lives  chiefly  on  animal  food,  such  as  meat, 
which  must  be  torn  into  shreds  before  it  is  swallowed. 
The  horse,  on  the  other  hand,  lives  on  oats,  hay,  and 
similar  foods  that  do  not  need  to  be  torn  up,  but  must  be 
ground  into  a  fine  pulp.  We  can  generally  tell  what  kind 
of  food  any  animal  eats  by  merely  looking  at  its  teeth. 

Which  kind  of  teeth  do  you  have  in  your  mouth? 
Look  in  the  mirror,  or  pass  your  tongue  over  them, 
and  you  will  see  (or  feel)  that  you  have  both  kinds. 
This  is  just  what  might  be  expected,  since  you  eat 
both  animal  foods  and  vegetable  foods,  like  bread  and 
cereals.  In  the  front  of  your  mouth  are  cutting  teeth, 
not  just  like  the  pointed  teeth  of  the  dog,  but  having 
a  long  sharp  edge  which  serves  the  same  purpose ;  while 
at  the  back  are  flat  teeth  for  grinding,  which  do  the 
same  sort  of  work  as  the  teeth  of  the  horse. 

99 


lOO 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


The  teeth  form  a  very  important  part  of  the  diges- 
tive system,  for  unless  the  food  is  well  broken  up  and 
mixed  with  the  digestive  juices  of  the  mouth,  it  will 
reach  the  stomach  in  lumps  and  will  be  very  hard  to 
digest. 

The  First  and  Second  Sets  of  Teeth.— There  is  one 
very  curious  thing  about  the  teeth — and  that  is  the  fact 

that  we  have,  each 
of  us,  two  distinct 
sets  of  teeth,  one  for 


Flat 


Sharp  Cutting  Teeth 


Fig.  42. — ^The  arrangement  of  the  perma- 
nent or  second  set  of  teeth. 


Grinding  usc  as  chiMrcn  and 

Teeth 

the  other  set  for  the 
rest  of  our  lives. 

A  very  little  baby 
has  no  teeth  that 
you  can  see,  but  just 
soft  red  gums.  The 
teeth,  however,  are 
there  down  below 
the  surface,  though  very  small.  Soon  they  begin  to 
grow  and  push  out  through  the  gums.  By  the  time 
a  baby  is  two  years  old,  it  usually  has  all  its  first  set 
of  teeth — twenty  of  them — and  these  are  the  teeth  a 
child  uses  till  it  is  more  than  five  years  old. 

At  about  the  age  of  six  years,  the  first  teeth  begin  to 
loosen  and  come  out;  and  soon  after  each  one  of  the 
first  set  drops  out,  one  or  more  of  the  second  or  per- 
manent set  of  teeth  grows  in  its  place.  There  are 
thirty-two  of  these  permanent  teeth,  and  most  of  them 
grow  out  between  the  ages  of  six  and  twelve.     The 


KEEPING  THE  TEETH  IN  GOOD  CONDITION     loi 

last  four  teeth  sometimes  appear  when  a  person  is 
twenty  years  old  or  more.  They  are  called  the  ''wisdom 
teeth,"  because  when  one  gets  to  be  as  old  as  twenty, 
one  ought  to  be  quite  wise. 

The  Parts  of  the  Tooth.— The  part  of  the  tooth  that 
we  see  in  the  mouth  is  squarish  or  flattened,  according 
to  the  kind,  and  is  called  the  crown.  It  is  covered  with 
a  very  hard  smooth  substance,  called  enamel.  Beneath 
the  surfaces  of  the  gum  are  the  roots,  which  are  pointed 
ends,  one,  two,  or  three  to 

each  tooth.    The  roots  hold    l^«inirfrw^"^'"TX_rro*v/i 
the   teeth  in  place,   some-    "i  l^^r^j.  n^^  """  '"^ 

what  as  a  root  holds  a  plant  '      '    '  ^"^ 

firmly  in  the  ground   (see 

Fig.  43).      The  crown  of  the     Fig.  43.— The  parts  of  the  teeth 

tooth  is  mostly  hard  dead         ^.^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^^  ^^^  ^"^ 

matter,    but   in    the    roots 

there  are  nerves  and  other  kinds  of  living  tissue. 

The  Value  of  Good  Teeth. — ^A  straight,  clean,  shining 
set  of  teeth  is  always  pleasant  to  look  at.  It  is  also  a 
help  in  keeping  the  whole  body  in  good  health.  If 
the  teeth  are  strong  and  sound,  their  work  of  preparing 
the  food  for  digestion  by  thorough  chewing  is  much 
more  likely  to  be  well  done.  When  people  grow  old, 
the  teeth  often  fall  out  and  have  to  be  replaced  by  false 
ones.  The  better  care  we  take  of  our  teeth,  the  longer 
we  shall  keep  the  ones  that  Nature  gives  us. 

The  Microbes  and  Tooth  Decay. — The  teeth  seem  so 
hard  and  strong  that  you  might  think  they  were  the 
very  last  parts  of  the  body  likely  to  become  diseased. 


I02  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Yet,  curiously  enough,  there  are  very  few  organs  that 
give  us  so  much  trouble  as  our  teeth. 

Diseases  of  the  teeth  are  usually  caused  by  very  tiny 
plants  or  animals  called  microbes,  a  word  which  means 
a  little  living  thing.  We  shall  learn  more  about  microbes 
in  Chapter  XIV.  They  are  very  small  indeed,  so  small 
that  thousands  of  them  could  be  on  the  point  of  a  pin 
without  your  being  able  to  see  anything  there  at  all, 
even  with  your  sharp  eyes.  The  microbes  can  be  seen, 
however,  with  a  special  instrument  called  a  microscope. 
You  probably  know  what  a  magnifying  glass  is  and 
how,  by  looking  through  it,  you  can  see  small  things 
that  would  be  quite  invisible  with  the  eye  alone.  A 
microscope  is  a  very  powerful  magnifying  glass;  and 
by  looking  through  such  a  glass  at  one  of  the  bits  of 
food  left  clinging  between  the  teeth,  you  could  see  great 
numbers  of  microbes,  such  as  are  pictured  on  page  162. 

In  the  food  particles,  these  microbes  grow  and  in- 
crease in  numbers  very  rapidly.  As  they  grow,  they 
change  the  food  and  spoil  it,  so  that  it  smells  badly. 
The  destruction  of  food  or  other  substances  by  microbes 
is  called  decay.  Some  of  the  microbes  that  grow  in 
food  masses  on  the  teeth  form  chemical  poisons,  which 
eat  into  and  decay  the  hard  enamel  of  the  teeth  them- 
selves. In  the  little  cavities  that  are  produced  in  the 
teeth,  more  food  gathers,  and  more  microbes  grow,  and 
more  chemical  poisons  are  formed.  These  substances  eat 
into  the  tooth  deeper  and  deeper,  until  finally  the  poisons 
formed  by  the  microbes,  and  perhaps  even  the  microbes 
themselves,  reach  the  living  tissue  inside  the  tooth. 


KEEPING  THE  TEETH  IN  GOOD  CONDITION     103 

It  is  unpleasant  to  think  of  having  such  things  as  this 
going  on  inside  your  mouth,  and  the  results  are  quite 
as  unpleasant  as  you  might  expect.  Bad  teeth  often 
give  the  mouth  a  very  disagreeable  odor,  even  when 
the  decay  has  only  just  begun.  As  the  process  goes  on, 
the  teeth  become  sensitive,  and  chewing  is  neglected, 
which  of  course  is  bad  for  the  digestion.  When  decay 
reaches  a  certain  point,  real  toothache  begins,  as  a 
result  of  the  work  of  the  poisons  formed  by  the  mi- 
crobes. If  you  have  had  a  toothache,  you  know  how 
painful  it  is;  and  if  you  have  not,  I  hope  you  may  never 
learn.  Even  the  toothache  is  not  always  the  worst  of 
it.  Sometimes  the  microbes  get  into  the  soft  tissue  at 
the  root  of  the  tooth,  and  the  poisons  which  they  form 
are  carried  by  the  blood  all  over  the  body.  Or  the 
microbes  themselves  may  pass  through  the  blood  to  the 
heart  or  some  other  organ.  If  this  happens,  serious  and 
even  fatal  disease  may  follow.  Microbes  can  grow  in 
the  mouth  or  in  the  intestines  without  doing  any  harm; 
but  if  they  grow  inside  the  organs  of  the  body,  they 
always  cause  illness.  So  you  see  that  tooth  decay  may 
really  be  a  very  dangerous  thing,  and  we  ought  to 
guard  against  it  with  every  possible  care. 

Guarding  against  Tooth  Decay. — The  chewing  of 
ordinary  tough  foods  is  good  for  the  teeth.  Vigorous 
use  polishes  their  surfaces  and  keeps  the  muscles  that 
move  them  in  active  condition.  We  should  not,  how- 
ever, crack  nuts  or  bite  very  hard  objects,  for  that  may 
chip  off  the  enamel. 

The  most  important  precaution  we  can  take  against 


I04 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


the  dangers  of  tooth  decay  is  the  regular  use  of  the 
toothbrush.  If  the  teeth  are  kept  thoroughly  clean, 
the  microbes  will  never  get  a  chance  even  to  start  their 
evil  work. 

The  best  possible  thing  to  do  is  to  brush  the  teeth 
carefully  after  each  meal,  so  as  to  remove  any  bits  of 

food  just  as  soon  as  they 
have  collected.  If  we 
cannot  always  do  this, 
we  should  brush  the 
teeth  at  least  twice  a 
day,  night  and  morning. 
The  brush  should  be  stiff, 
but  not  too  hard.  It 
should  be  applied  sys- 
tematically, not  only  to 
the  flat  tops  of  the  teeth 
but  to  the  fronts  and 
backs  as  well. 

Some  people  brush 
their  teeth  along  the  sides  from  the  back  to  the  front 
of  the  mouth,  and  some  brush  up  and  down,  from  the 
gums  to  the  crowns  of  the  teeth. 

The  best  way  of  all  is  to  hold  the  brush  in  the  position 
shown  in  Fig.  44,  press  the  bristles  firmly  against  the 
teeth,  and  give  the  brush  a  slightly  rotary  (round  and 
round)  motion.  When  the  outside  surfaces  at  each 
side  and  in  front  have  been  well  cleaned,  the  inner  sur- 
faces should  be  treated  in  the  same  way.  Then  the 
crowns  of  the  teeth  should  be  brushed  thoroughly. 


Fig.  44. — ^How  to  hold  the  tooth- 
brush. 


KEEPING  THE  TEETH  IN  GOOD  CONDITION     105 

Finally,  after  the  brushing  has  been  completed,  the 
mouth  should  be  rinsed  several  times.  You  will  find 
that  you  can  do  this  by  forcing  water  between  and 
around  the  teeth  with  the  aid  of  the  lips  and  tongue. 

The  Brushes'  Quarrel. — Once  upon  a  time  a  little  girl 
thought  she  was  waked  up  one  night  by  a  noise  of  voices 
in  the  kitchen.  It  seemed  to  her  that  she  pushed  the 
kitchen  door  open  softly  and  that  this  was  what  she 
saw  and  heard. 

The  moonlight  was  shining  quite  brightly  through 
the  kitchen  window,  and  sitting  in  a  ring  on  the  floor 
were  all  the  brushes  and  brooms  in  the  house.  They 
were  having  a  vigorous  argument  as  to  which  one 
ought  to  be  king.  The  broom  was  presiding  at  the 
meeting,  because  he  was  biggest;  but  it  had  been  agreed 
that  the  one  that  was  most  useful  in  the  household 
ought  to  be  the  king,  and  each  was  presenting  arguments 
why  he  should  be  the  one. 

The  hearthbrush  declared  that  ashes  from  the  fire- 
place made  more  dirt  in  the  house  than  everything  else 
put  together,  and  that  his  work  of  keeping  them  back 
on  the  hearth  and  preventing  them  from  being  blown 
about  was  the  most  important  thing  a  brush  could 
possibly  do. 

Mr.  Broom,  the  chairman,  put  in  his  word.  "There 
is  nothing  at  all  in  the  Hon.  Mr.  Hearthb rush's  claim." 
(The  broom  was  always  very  formal  and  polite.)  "The 
open  fires  are  only  lighted  in  certain  rooms  and  at  cer- 
tain times;  but  there  is  dirt  in  the  house  always  and 
everywhere.     I  am  the  one  who  has  to  keep  it  clean 


io6 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


from  attic  to  cellar,  in  July  as  well  as  in  January,  and 
my  work  is  therefore  most  important  of  all." 

The  bottle  brush  and  the 
sink  brush  applauded  this 
(by  rubbing  their  bristles 
against  each  other) ;  but  the 
clothesbrush  jumped  into 
the  center  of  the  circle, 
very  much  excited,  and 
gave  the  discussion  a  some- 
what new  direction.  "It  is 
true  that  Temporary  Chair- 
man Broom  probably  moves 
more  dirt  in  a  year  than 
^o  y  all  the  rest  of  us  put  to- 

Brasfiej;'     \]  gether,''   he   said,   "but    I 

Quarrel 


Fig.  45. — Should  the  toothbrush  be  king  of  all  the  brushes? 
claim  it  is  quality  of  work,  not  quantity,  that  ought  to 
count.     Mr.  Broom  is  trusted  for  the  hea\^  work  of 


KEEPING  THE  TEETH  IN  GOOD  CONDITION     107 

cleaning  floors  and  stairways,  but  when  they  want  a 
really  good  job  done,  when  they  want  the  clothes  they 
wear  to  be  spic-and-span,  they  call  on  me." 

"There  is  a  great  deal  in  what  Brother  Clothesbrush 
has  said,"  interrupted  a  handsome  silver-mounted  hair- 
brush, ''but  his  argument  counts  much  more  for  me 
than  it  does  for  himself.  The  clothes  are  more  im- 
portant than  the  carpets,  but  the  head  is  more  impor- 
tant than  the  clothes,  and  I  have  by  far  the  greatest 
work  of  all  to  do." 

There  was  silence  for  a  moment,  and  it  almost  looked 
as  if  the  hairbrush  would  carry  the  day.  Suddenly  a 
tiny  little  figure  ran  out  into  the  moonlight,  and  a  high 
squeaky  voice  cried  out,  "Wait  a  bit,  wait  a  bit,  until 
you  have  heard  a  plea  from  me,  the  Toothbrush.  The 
clothes  are  more  important  than  the  carpet,  and  the 
head  than  the  clothes,  I  agree.  But  the  inside  of  the 
head  is  far  more  important  than  the  outside." 

"If  Mr.  Clothes  Brush  or  Mr.  Hairbrush  is  neg- 
lected," he  went  on,  "our  masters  and  mistresses  wiU 
look  untidy,  but  they  will  not  get  ill ;  while  if  I  were  not 
used,  there  would  be  toothache  and  misery  and  illness 
as  a  result.  I  am  the  one  who  ought  to  be  king  of  the 
brushes." 

There  was  a  great  hubbub  and  noise,  some  taking 
little  Mr.  Toothbrush's  side  and  some  opposing  him; 
but  just  then  the  dreamer  woke  up  and  never  knew  who 
was  finally  chosen  king. 

The  Dental  Care  of  the  Teeth.— The  toothbrush  is 
certainly  one  of  our  best  friends,  but  even  the  regular 


io8  HEALTHY  LIVING 

use  of  the  toothbrush  cannot  be  expected  to  defend 
the  teeth  completely  from  our  microbe  foes.  Every 
now  and  then  decay  begins  on  a  small  scale,  even  in 
well-cared-for  mouths.  It  is  important  that  the  teeth 
should  be  regularly  examined  by  a  dentist  in  order  to 
detect  this  decay  and  treat  it  before  it  has  gone  too 
far.  If  the  teeth  are  examined  three  or  four  times  a 
year,  they  can  be  kept  sound  very  easily  and  with  no 
pain.  The  dentist  can  also  straighten  teeth  that  are 
crooked,  whch  often  improves  a  child's  looks  and  his 
health  very  greatly.  Early  and  frequent  dental  care 
before  the  teeth  decay  will  spare  many  painful  hours 
afterward.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  most  schools 
provide  for  the  systematic  examination  of  the  teeth  of 
the  children,  and  there  are  few  things  that  the  school 
doctor  and  the  school  nurse  do  which  are  more  impor- 
tant than  this. 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  teeth  of  a  cat  and  the 
teeth  of  a  horse? 

2.  A  deer  eats  grass.    What  kind  of  teeth  do  you  think  it  has? 

3.  What  kinds  of  teeth  have  you  in  your  mouth?    How  many 
of  each? 

4.  What  is  the  crown  of  the  tooth?    What  are  the  roots? 
Why  is  one  part  called  a  "crown"  and  the  other  a  "root"? 

5.  What  are  some  of  the  advantages  in  having  a  good  set  of 
teeth? 

6.  What  are  some  of  the  things  you  can  do  to  keep  your  teeth 
in  good  condition? 

7.  What  are  microbes?    What  do  they  do  to  the  teeth? 

8.  George  thought  it  was  a  bother  to  brush  his  teeth  and  he 


KEEPING  THE  TEETH  IN  GOOD  CONDITION     109 

never  brushed  them  unless  his  mother  was  watching  and  told 
him  to.    What  do  you  think  happened  in  his  mouth? 

9.  Describe  the  best  way  to  brush  the  teeth. 

10.  Who  do  you  think  ought  to  have  been  chosen  king  of  the 
brushes?    Explain  your  choice. 

11.  Sally's  mother  took  her  to  the  dentist  regularly  three 
times  a  year.  Jane  never  went  except  when  she  had  a  toothache. 
Which  do  you  think  spent  more  hours  with  the  dentist? 


CHAPTER  X* 
BREATHING 

The  Importance  of  Breathing. — ^When  some  one  has 
asked  you  what  you  were  doing,  you  have  probably 
often  answered,  "Nothing."  That  was  not  quite 
accurate,  however,  was  it?  There  are  some  things  you 
are  doing  all  the  time,  and  one  of  the  most  important 
of  these  is  breathing. 

In  and  out,  in  and  out,  the  air  goes  every  minute  of 
the  day  and  night,  whether  you  are  working  or  playing 
or  sitting  still  or  asleep  in  bed.  Put  a  watch  on  the  table 
before  you,  and  count  the  number  of  breaths  you  take 
in  one  minute.  Then  multiply  the  number  by  60  to 
see  how  many  times  you  breathe  in  an  hour,  and  mul- 
tiply that  product  by  24  to  see  how  many  times  you 
breathe  in  a  day.  All  through  your  life  this  must  go 
on.  If  breathing  stopped  for  a  very  few  minutes,  the 
whole  machinery  of  the  body  would  stop  too. 

The  Organs  of  Breathing. — Where  does  the  air  go 
that  you  breathe  in  so  many  times  a  minute?  If  you 
will  look  at  Fig.  46,  you  will  see. 

The  air,  drawn  in  through  the  ncJse,  passes  first  into 

the  upper  part  of  the  throat,  for  the  nose  opens  into 

the  throat,  as  you  can  see  by  the  picture.    From  the 

lower  part   of   the   throat   there   are   two   openings. 

Through  the  opening  at  the  front,  the  air  is  drawn  into 
'  no 


BREATHING 


III 


the  windpipe;  and  at 

the  back  there  is  an 
opening  into  the  esoph- 
agus, by  which  food 
passes  to  the  ahmen- 
tary  canal.  The  wind- 
pipe (see  Fig.  47)  runs 
down  a  httle  way 
and  then  divides  into 
two  branches,  called 
bronchi,  which  lead  to 
the  lungs.  The  two 
lungs    are    the    prin- 


Moutfa^ 

Tongue 

Lorjnx 
Windpipe. 


E.Hophoffus 


Fig.  46. — How  the  air  passes  from  the 
nose  to  the  windpipe. 


Larynx 


cipal  organs  of  breathing,  or  respiration.  It  is  through 
the  nose,  throat,  and  windpipe  that  the  air  we  breathe 
passes  down  into  the  lungs. 

The  lung  is  made  up,  for 
the  most  part,  of  a  great 
-Windpipe     number  of  small  air  cham- 
bers.    All  of  these  cham- 
bers are   connected 
with  the  windpipe. 
You  have  just  seen 
that    the    windpipe 
is  divided  into  two 
bronchi;  these   two 
bronchi      subdivide 
again  into  many  fine 
branches  that  go  to 

Fig.  47.— The  lungs  and  the  windpipe,      all  parts  of  the  lungS. 


112  HEALTHY  LIVING 

In  the  walls  of  the  branches  and  of  the  tiny  air 
chambers  is  a  network  of  fine  blood  vessels.  The  blood 
flowing  through  these  blood  vessels  is  separated  from 
the  air  in  the  lung  by  a  very  thin  layer  of  living  matter. 
Through  this  thin  layer,  substances  in  the  air  may  pass 
into  the  blood,  and  substances  in  the  blood  may  pass 
out  to  the  air. 

The  Air  We  Breathe. — ^What  is  there  in  the  air  that 
the  body  needs? 

The  air  seems  like  nothing  at  all.  We  cannot  see  it, 
and  can  feel  it  only  when  there  is  a  wind  or  some  other 
force  to  set  it  in  active  motion.  Yet  the  air  is  a  very 
real  substance,  or  mixture  of  substances. 

We  live  in  an  ocean  of  air  and  depend  upon  it  for  our 
life,  just  as  fish  live  in  the  water  and  die  when  taken 
out  of  it.  Some  things,  like  salt  and  stones,  are  solid; 
some,  like  water  and  syrup,  are  liquid;  and  some  that 
move  about  freely,  mixing  with  the  air  and  often,  like 
it,  invisible,  are  gases.  You  know  about  the  gas  that 
comes  into  our  houses  in  pipes  and  is  burned  for  heat 
and  light.  This  is  only  one  kind  of  gas.  The  substances 
in  the  air  are  gases,^  too. 

The  Good  Fairy  Oxygen. — ^When  illuminating  gas 
burns,  there  is  a  chemical  action  going  on  between  two 
gases;  the  illuminating  gas  that  came  in  through  the 
pipe  combines  with  a  gas,  called  oxygen,  in  the  air  of 
the  room.  Wherever  anything  burns,  it  is  this  gas, 
oxygen,  which  is  at  work.  If  a  candle  flame  were  cov- 
ered over  with  a  tight  glass  jar,  the  candle  would  go 
out  as  soon  as  it  had  used  up  all  the  oxygen  of  the  air 


BREATHING 


113 


inside  the  jar.  For  the  activities  of  the  living  matter 
in  our  bodies,  we  need  oxygen,  just  as  the  candle  flame 
does.    The  first  object  of  respiration  is  to  supply  oxygen. 


Fig.  48. — When  men  go  down  into  deep  parts  of  mines  where 
there  may  not  be  enough  oxygen  to  breathe,  they  take 
with  them  a  canary  bird,  which  is  very  sensitive  to  poor 
air,  so  that  its  distress  may  warn  them  of  the  danger. 
If  the  air  is  bad,  the  men  can  put  on  the  masks  hang- 
ing in  front  of  them,  and  breathe  oxygen  from  the  bag 
slung  over  their  shoulders. 

It  is  this  gas  which  passes  from  the  air  chambers  of  the 
lungs  into  the  blood,  as  we  breathe. 
The  more  you  learn  about  oxygen,  the  more  you 


114  HEALTHY  LIVING 

will  feel  that  it  is  almost  like  one  of  the  good  fairies  in 
the  story  books.  You  cannot  see  it,  but  it  is  every- 
where about  us.  Whenever  any  one  strikes  a  match 
or  lights  a  fire,  Oxygen  is  at  work  making  the  flame 
burn.  The  fire  of  logs  around  which  some  band  of 
travelers  gathers  for  warmth  in  the  frozen  north,  and 
the  great  blast  furnaces  of  Pittsburgh  where  steel  is 
made  for  mighty  ships  and  for  guns,  owe  their  heat  and 
their  power  to  Oxygen.  It  is  Oxygen  which  makes  pos- 
sible the  life  of  every  living  thing,  from  the  green  slime 
on  the  bark  of  a  tree  to  the  tree  itself,  and  from  the 
tiniest  insect  up  to  the  elephant  or  man. 

Objects  of  Respiration. — Getting  oxygen  into  the 
body  is  only  one  of  the  objects  of  breatliing.  It  is 
almost  equally  essential  to  get  rid  of  certain  wastes 
formed  in  the  body  itself.  Chemical  changes  are  going 
on  all  the  time,  in  living  matter,  and  waste  substances 
are  being  formed,  which  would  injure  the  body  if  they 
were  not  carried  away.  One  of  the  most  important  of 
these  wastes  is  a  gas  called  carbon  dioxide,  which  is 
carried  away  from  the  different  organs  by  the  blood  and 
finally  gotten  rid  of  through  the  lungs. 

In  the  walls  of  the  tiny  air  spaces  of  the  lungs,  there 
is  a  thin  layer  of  living  matter  with  blood  on  one  side 
and  air  on  the  other.  Oxygen  passes  in  from  the  air  to 
the  blood,  and  carbon  dioxide  passes  out  from  the  blood 
to  the  air. 

In  this  way  the  air  in  the  air  chambers  of  the  lungs 
would,  of  course,  become  all  the  time  poorer  in  oxygen 
and  richer  in  carbon  dioxide,  if  it  were  not  changed. 


BREATHING  115 

Our  constant  breathing  in  and  out  is  necessary  in  order 
to  change  the  air  in  the  lungs,  to  bring  in  fresh  oxygen, 
and  carry  off  carbon  dioxide. 

Besides  carbon  dioxide,  a  good  deal  of  water  is 
given  off  to  the  air  in  the  lungs.  On  a  cold  day  we 
can  see  this  water  condensed  as  moisture  from  the 
breath. 

The  Old  Well. — Two  boys  were  once  playing  ball 
on  a  farm  in  eastern  Connecticut  when  the  ball,  which 
had  been  thrown  a  little  wild,  bounded  into  an  old, 
unused  well  and  disappeared.  The  boys  peered  over 
the  edge  and  threw  a  stone  in.  They  could  tell  by 
the  noise  as  it  struck  that  there  was  earth  and  not 
water  at  the  bottom. 

The  walls  of* the  well  were  made  of  rough  stone;  and 
although  it  was  quite  deep,  Edward,  the  elder  boy, 
who  was  strong  and  active,  thought  he  could  climb 
dowm  by  getting  his  toes  in  between  the  stones  and 
holding  on  to  the  old  well  rope,  which  was  made  fast 
at  the  top.  He  had  kicked  off  his  shoes  when  the 
younger  brother,  Robert,  had  a  sudden  thought.  "Wait 
a  minute,  Ed,"  he  said,  "let  us  be  sure  first  that  the 
air  is  all  right." 

He  ran  to  the  house  and  brought  back  a  candle  and 
some  matches  and  a  long  piece  of  string.  The  boys' 
father,  who  was  passing,  joined  them  to  see  what  was 
going  on.  He  helped  them  cut  a  groove  around  the 
candle,  tie  a  string  in  the  groove,  light  the  candle,  and 
let  it  slowly  down  into  the  well.  When  it  was  nearly 
at  the  bottom, — all  at  once  the  candle  went  out ! 


ii6 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


"Well,  boys,  what  does  that  mean?"  asked  their 
father. 

"Why,  it  means  that  there  was  not  enough  oxygen 
down  at  the  bottom  of  the  well  to  keep  the  flame  burn- 
ing," cried  Robert  in  excitement,  "and  if  Ed  had  gone 


Fig.  49. — The  boys  and  their  father  let  a  candle  down  into  the  well 
to  see  if  there  is  oxygen  enough  to  keep  the  flame  burning. 

down,  there  would  not  have  been  enough  for  him  to 
breathe  and  he  might  have  died." 

"Right  you  are,"  said  his  father.  "There  is  plenty 
of  oxygen  in  all  ordinary  air,  even  in  crowded  rooms; 
but  in  old  wells  and  cesspools  and  the  lower  parts  of 
mines,  where  decay  is  going  on,  the  air  sometimes  con- 
tains a  great  deal  of  carbon  dioxide  and  not  enough 


BREATHING  117 

oxygen  to  support  life.  You  have  studied  physiology 
to  good  purpose,  Bob,  I  see,  and  I  will  give  you  a  new 
League  ball  for  your  good  sense  and  judgment." 

How  the  Breathing  Movements  are  Made. — The 
machinery  by  which  the  breathing  movements  are 
made  and  the  air  is  drawn  into  the  lungs  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  things  about  the  human  body. 

The  lungs  lie  in  the  chest,  in  a  space  bounded  on  the 
sides  by  the  ribs  and  below  by  a  very  large  muscle 
called  the  diaphragm  (see  Fig.  9).  The  diaphragm  is 
shaped  like  a  big  saucer  upside  down. 

Each  time  we  take  a  breath,  two  things  happen.  In 
the  first  place,  the  muscles  of  the  ribs  contract  so  as 
to  pull  the  ribs  upward  and  outward,  which  makes  the 
chest  space  larger  from  front  to  back  and  from  side  to 
side.  This  is  the  movement  we  see  as  we  watch  the 
chest  rise  when  a  person  breathes  deeply.  At  the  same 
time,  the  diaphragm  contracts  so  as  to  pull  its  center 
downward  (flattening  out  the  inverted  saucer);  this 
makes  the  chest  space  larger  from  top  to  bottom. 
The  walls  of  the  lungs  are  elastic,  and  anything  that 
makes  the  chest  space  larger  will  make  the  lungs  grow 
larger,  too.  As  they  grow  larger,  they  draw  air  in 
through  the  windpipe  from  the  throat. 

These  two  sets  of  muscles  contract  and  relax  each 
time  we  breathe.  What  is  more  wonderful  still,  they 
change  so  as  to  regulate  rate  and  depth  of  breathing 
to  meet  all  the  changing  conditions  of  our  life.  When 
you  run,  for  instance,  the  muscles  that  are  working 
hard  need  more  oxygen  and  make  more  carbon  dioxide 


ii8  HEALTHY  LIVING 

that  must  be  got  rid  of.  So  without  any  planning  on 
your  part,  the  muscles  of  breathing  do  more  work,  and 
the  breaths  come  more  quickly,  and  the  lungs  are  filled 
more  completely. 

The  Hygiene  of  the  Breathing  Organs. — A  full  use 
of  the  organs  of  respiration  is  essential  for  the  health 
of  the  body.  Anything  which  hinders  the  chest  move- 
ments or  cramps  the  lungs  is  likely  to  prevent  the  full, 
deep  breathing  which  we  need  in  order  to  keep  well. 
Wearing  tight  clothes  and  sitting  or  standing  in  a 
slouching  position  have,  therefore,  a  bad  effect  on  the 
breathing  organs. 

It  is  an  excellent  plan  to  take  a  few  exercises  in  deep 
breathing  every  morning.  Hold  your  head  up  and 
your  body  straight.  Then  raise  your  arms  slowly  at 
your  sides  as  you  breathe  in,  and  let  them  slowly  fall 
as  you  breathe  out. 

You  should  always  breathe  through  the  nose  and  not 
through  the  mouth.  In  passing  through  the  nose,  the 
air  becomes  warmed,  and  dirt  particles  in  it  are  taken 
out,  because  they  stick  to  the  moist  surfaces  of  the  nose. 
Breathing  cold  air  and  dust-laden  air  directly  into  the 
throat  through  the  mouth  is  a  dangerous  habit.  If  you 
cannot  breathe  comfortably  through  your  nose,  there 
is  something  wrong,  and  you  should  go  to  a  doctor  for 
examination.  The  doctor  will  know  how  to  remedy 
the  difhculty,  and  you  will  be  able  to  work  and  play 
and  study  better  when  you  breathe  properly  through 
the  nose. 

The  walls  of  the  breathing  organs  are  very  soft  and 


BREATHING  119 

delicate,  and  microbes  often  grow  upon  them,  as  they 
do  in  cavities  of  the  teeth,  and  cause  disease.  When 
this  happens  in  the  nose  or  the  upper  part  of  the  throat, 
we  may  call  it  a  cold  in  the  head  or  a  sore  throat.  If  it 
occurs  in  the  branches  of  the  windpipe  (the  bronchi), 
it  is  bronchitis ;  if  in  the  lungs  themselves,  pneumonia. 

In  the  back  of  the  throat  are  cwo  roundish  organs 
called  the  tonsils,  which  you  can  see  on  each  side  as 
you  look  into  the  mouth.  These  organs  are  particularly 
liable  to  be  diseased,  the  trouble  which  results  being 
called  tonsilitis. 

We  can  avoid  these  diseases  by  keeping  the  microbes 
that  cause  them  out  of  the  mouth  and  nose,  as  far  as 
possible,  and  by  keeping  the  nose  and  throat  and  other 
organs  of  respiration  so  healthy  that  they  can  resist 
any  germs  which  do  come  along.  Both  these  subjects 
will  be  discussed  in  detail  in  a  later  chapter. 

The  Organs  of  Speech. — At  the  top  of  the  windpipe, 
just  below  the  point  where  it  connects  with  the  throat, 
is  a  small  but  very  important  organ,  called  the  larynx 
(see  Fig.  47).  The  larynx  has  in  it  two  bands  called  the 
vocal  cords,  which  make  many  of  the  sounds  of  speech. 
The  cords  vibrate  in  certain  ways,  like  the  strings  of  a 
violin  or  a  piano.  If  you  place  your  fingers  on  your 
throat  under  the  chin  when  speaking,  you  can  feel  the 
larynx  moving.  The  larynx  does  not  do  all  of  this  work, 
however,  for  many  of  the  sounds  of  speech  are  made 
with  the  lips,  teeth,  and  tongue.  Say  over  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet  and  see  which  ones  require  the  use  of 
these  various  organs. 


i20  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  How  does  the  air  get  into  your  lungs  when  you  breathe 
properly  through  your  nose? 

2.  Why  is  it  bad  to  breathe  through  the  mouth? 

3.  Give  two  examples  of  solids.    Of  liquids.    Of  gases. 

4.  Why  are  the  men  in  Figure  48  carrying  a  canary  bird? 

5.  What  happens  in  the  lungs  when  we  breathe? 

6.  What  is  the  diaphragm? 

7.  How  is  the  air  drawn  into  the  lungs? 

8.  Why  do  you  breathe  hard  after  you  have  been  running 
fast? 

9.  What  are  the  tonsils?    What  diseased  condition  may  occur 
in  them? 

10.  In  what  different  ways  are  the  sounds  of  speech  made? 

11.  What  movements  do  you  make  when  you  say  each  of  the 
following  letters:  B,  D,  K,  L,  S,  V,  Y? 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD 

The  Blood  and  the  Blood  Vessels. — The  food  for 
the  various  organs  of  the  body  is  taken  in  through  the 
walls  of  the  intestines,  and  the  oxygen  through  the 
walls  of  the  lungs.  Somehow  the  food  and  the  oxygen 
must  be  carried  about  the  body  to  all  the  different 
organs;  and  you  have  learned  in  Chapter  II  that  it  is 
the  blood  which  does  this  work. 

If  you  could  trace  one  of  the  tiny  blood  vessels  in 
the  lung,  you  would  find  that  the  stream  it  carries  joins 
with  another  and  flows  into  a  larger  vessel;  and  that 
joins  with  others  and  flows  into  a  still  larger  one;  and 
so  on,  until  finally  the  combined  stream  from  both  the 
lungs  pours  into  the  heart.  The  heart  is  a  hollow  organ, 
about  the  size  of  the  fist,  which  lies  in  the  chest  between 
the  lungs  (see  Fig.  50).  From  the  heart,  the  stream 
flows  out  again  through  a  big  blood  vessel  that  measures 
nearly  an  inch  across.  This  blood  vessel  branches  into 
finer  ones,  which  in  turn  branch  into  still  finer  vessels; 
and  in  these  the  stream  flows  at  last  to  the  most  distant 
parts  of  the  body,  to  the  top  of  the  head  and  the  soles 
of  the  feet  and  the  tips  of  the  fingers  (Fig.  51). 

The  blood  vessels  that  carry  the  blood  into  the  heart 

are  called  veins.    Those  by  which  the  blood  flows  out 

from  the  heart  are  called  arteries. 

121 


122 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


You  know  how  fortunate  a  city  is  that  is  situated  on 
the  shore  of  a  river,  so  that  steamers  can  bring  to  it 
food  and  clothing,  wood  and  coal,  and  the  other  things 
its  people  need.  The  blood  serves  the  organs  of  the 
body  as  the  river  serves  such  a  city,  for  through  every 
organ  the  blood  is  constantly  flowing  as  a  stream  of 
life,  laden  with  the  food  and  oxygen  the  body  needs. 


'ArieHes 


Blood  Vessel 
of  fhe  Lung 

Hcar-t 


JLanye 
Aj^fery  fa 

Lowen 
Pnrf of 

Bocfy 


Fig.  50. — The  heart  and  some  of  the  principal  blood  vessels. 

The  blood  serves  another  very  important  purpose,  too, 
for  it  not  only  brings  to  the  organs  the  oxygen  and  food, 
but  it  carries  away  the  wastes  which  the  organs  are 
forming  all  the  time  and  which  they  must  get  rid  of,  if 
the  body  is  to  keep  well. 

The  Cells  of  the  Blood. — ^You  may  wonder  per- 
haps if  there  is  anything  in  the  blood  stream  corre- 
sponding to  the  ships  which  sail  on  a  river  and 
carry  goods  to  the  city  on  its  banks.  There  are; 
and  by  using  a  microscope  such  as  was  described  on 


THE   CIRCULATION  OF  THE   BLOOTJ 


123 


l^r/n^ 


■Arteries 


Fig.  51. — The  blood  vessels  of 
the  hand. 


page  102,  we  can  see  the  ships 

that  sail  in  the  blood  stream. 
We  cannot  very  well  see 

the    blood    actually   flowing 

through  our  own  blood  ves- 
sels even  with  a  microscope; 

but  it  is  possible  to  see  the 

blood  flowing  in  the  vessels 

of     certain     animals    which 

have  a  very  thin,  transparent 

skin.    The  foot  of  a  frog,  for 

example,  has  a  very  delicate 

skin  between  the  toes ;  and  if 

the  frog's  foot  is  held  under 

a  microscope,  one  can  see  a  wonderful  sight.    The  thin 

part  of  the  foot  between  the  toes  is  full  of  small  blood 

vessels;  and  each  of  these,  under  the  microscope,  is 

seen  to  be  crowded  wdth  little 
round  discs,  like  those  which 
are  dra^vn  in  Fig.  52.  They 
are  not  still  and  quiet,  how- 
ever, as  you  see  them  in  the 
picture,  but  are  rushing  past 
at  a  great  speed  and  tum- 
bling about  in  the  stream,  as 

Fig.  S2.-The  oxygen-carry-  ^hey  are  carried  along  by  the 
ing  cells  of  the  blood,  as  blood  flow.  These  tiny  ships 
they  appear  under  the  are  the  red  cells  of  the  blood. 


microscope    in    the    tiny 


It  is  the  red  cells  which  carry 


blood  vessels  of  the  foot 

of  a  frog.  oxygen  from  the  lungs  to  the 


124  HEALTHY  LIVING 

other  organs,  and  in  the  tissues  exchange  the  oxygen  for 
carbon  dioxide.  They  carry  the  carbon  dioxide  to  the 
lungs,  where  they  give  it  up  and  take  on  a  new  cargo 
of  oxygen  in  its  place. 

These  red  cells  are  so  abundant  in  the  blood  that 
they  give  it  the  red  color.  The  liquid  in  which  they 
float  is  not  red  at  all,  but  a  yellowish  straw-color. 

There  is  another  kind  of  cell  in  the  blood  stream 
which  might  be  likened  to  a  warship,  since  we  have 
compared  the  red  cells  to  merchant  ships.  These  are 
larger  and  less  numerous  than  the  red  cells.  As  they 
are  whitish  in  color,  they  are  called  the  white  cells. 
They  attack  and  destroy  harmful  things,  like  disease 
germs,  which  enter  the  blood.  When  we  ^^get  over" 
an  attack  of  influenza  or  typhoid  fever  or  a  cold  in  the 
head  or  some  other  disease,  it  is  largely  because  of  the 
activity  of  these  white  cells  in  defending  the  body 
against  its  enemies. 

The  Work  of  the  Heart. — It  takes  a  great  deal  of  force 
to  drive  the  blood  through  these  fine  channels  all  over 
the  body,  and  this  force  is  furnished  by  the  beat  of  the 
heart. 

The  heart  is  a  hollow  chamber  with  very  heavy 
muscular  walls.  It  is  all  the  time  expanding  and  con- 
tracting with  a  regular  beat,  which  one  can  hear  by 
putting  the  ear  to  the  left  side  of  a  person's  chest.  At 
each  expansion  blood  is  drawn  in  from  the  veins,  and 
at  each  contraction  it  is  forced  out  into  the  arteries. 

The  waves  of  pressure  set  up  by  the  beating  of  the 
heart  are  carried  all  the  way  along  the  arteries.    When 


THE   CIRCULATION  OF  THE   BLOOD  125 

the  doctor  puts  his  finger  on  the  large  artery  in  your 
wrist  to  feel  your  pulse,  what  he  is  really  doing  is  to 
count  the  beats  of  the  heart  as  they  are  recorded  by 
these  waves  of  pressure  in  the  artery. 

Richard  the  Lion-heart.— The  heart  is  a  wonderful 
organ,  beating  all  the  time  about  once  every  second, 
and  driving  the  life  blood  out  to  all  parts  of  the  body. 
It  is  such  an  important  part  of  the  body  that  we  often 
speak  of  a  man  who  is  very  good  and  noble  as  being 
"great-hearted,"  and  of  one  who  is  very  gentle  as 
''kind-hearted." 

There  was  once  a  king  of  England,  Richard  the  First, 
who  was  so  brave  and  such  a  great  soldier  that  he  was 
called  ''Cceur-de-Lion,"  which  is  the  French  for  ''the 
Lion-heart."  He  won  this  name  because  he  was  so 
brave  that  it  was  thought  that  he  must  have  a  heart 
something  hke  that  of  the  bravest  and  fiercest  of  beasts, 
the  lion.  You  will  read  all  about  him  some  day,  how 
he  led  his  army  into  the  Holy  Land  to  try  to  reconquer 
Jerusalem  from  the  Turks,  how  he  performed  many  acts 
of  personal  bravery,  and  how  on  his  return  he  was  taken 
prisoner  by  an  Austrian  ruler. 

For  a  long  time  no  one  knew  where  Richard  was  im- 
prisoned; but  according  to  one  story,  he  was  at  last 
found  by  a  faithful  minstrel,  named  Blondel,  who  had 
been  with  him  in  the  Holy  Land.  Blondel  disguised 
himself  and  wandered  all  through  Germany  and  Aus- 
tria, singing  one  of  the  king's  favorite  songs  under  the 
walls  of  every  castle.  He  hoped  that  when  he  got  to 
the  place  where  Richard  was,  the  king  would  hear  him 


126  HEALTHY  LIVING 

and  know  that  a  friend  was  near.  At  last  Blondel's 
patience  was  rewarded,  for  as  he  was  singing  at  the 
foot  of  a  tower,  Richard's  voice  took  up  the  next  verse 
of  the  song  in  reply.  Blondel  carried  home  to  England 
the  news  of  where  the  king  was,  and  through  him  Rich- 
ard was  restored  to  his  throne  and  his  country.  .Blondel 
must  have  been  somewhat  of  a  Lion-heart  himself,  if 
that  kind  of  heart  always  goes  with  courage. 

Harvey's  Discovery  of  the  Circulation  of  the  Blood. 
—A  long,  long  time  after  Richard  Coeur-de-Lion 
reigned,  there  was  another  king  of  England,  Charles 
the  First,  who  had  a  court  physician  named  William 
Harvey.  It  is  to  Harvey  that  we  owe  the  discovery 
of  how  the  blood  circulates,  for  even  the  wisest  people 
before  Harvey's  time  did  not  know  as  much  as  you 
know  about  it — if  you  have  studied  this  chapter  care- 
fully. 

Scientific  men  three  hundred  years  ago  knew  that 
blood  flowed  out  through  the  arteries  and  in  through 
the  veins  to  the  heart.  But  many  of  them  thought  that 
the  blood  which  went  out  of  the  heart  never  came  back, 
and  that  the  blood  which  came  in  was  being  made 
fresh  all  the  time  from  the  water  and  food  in  the 
alimentary  canal.  Harvey  was  a  man  who  thought 
things  out  for  himself.  As  an  illustration  of  his  studious 
habits,  it  is  said  that  one  day  when  he  was  placed  in 
charge  of  the  king's  children  during  a  battle  in  which 
his  royal  master  was  engaged,  he  sat  with  them  under 
a  hedge  calmly  reading  a  book  all  the  time  the  battle 
was  raging.    He  did  more  than  think  and  read,  however. 


THE   CIRCULATION  OF  THE   BLOOD  127 

He  studied  nature  at  first  hand,  and  particularly  the 
actual  structure  and  behavior  of  the  human  body.  He 
found  out  that  the  same  blood  forced  out  by  the  beat 
of  the  heart  through  the  arteries  comes  back  again  to 
the  heart  through  the  veins,  and  is  thus  kept  in  a  true 
and  constant  circulation. 

How  the  Blood  Supply  to  Different  Organs  is  Regu- 
lated.— ^The  various  organs  of  the  body  need  different 
amounts  of  blood  at  different  times.  WTien  you  are 
running  or  playing  actively,  for  example,  your  muscles 
are  working  hard,  and  they  need  more  oxygen  than 
when  they  are  at  rest;  they  also  make  more  carbon 
dioxide  that  must  be  carried  away.  In  order  to  meet 
this  need,  the  heart  beats  faster,  so  that  the  blood  with 
its  freight  of  oxygen  will  go  faster  through  the  muscles. 
This  more  rapid  beat  after  active  exercise  can  easily  be 
measured  by  noting  the  increase  in  the  rate  of  the  pulse 
beat  at  the  wrist. 

It  is  not  only  the  rate  of  the  heart  beat  that  varies. 
The  blood  vessels  also  adapt  themselves  to  changing 
needs.  The  walls  of  the  arteries  are  not  stiff  and  hard 
but  elastic,  and  in  these  walls  there  are  tiny  muscles 
which  make  the  vessels  smaller  when  they  contract  and 
larger  when  they  expand.  When  a  muscle  or  any  other 
organ  is  active,  the  walls  of  the  arteries  in  that  par- 
ticular part  grow  larger,  so  that  more  blood  can  flow 
through  it.  Think  how  wonderful  is  this  arrangement 
by  which  the  needs  of  all  parts  of  the  body  are  met 
without  a  thought  or  a  care  on  your  part. 

The  Body  Temperature. — Another  very  important 


128  HEALTHY  LIVING 

thing  which  the  blood  vessels  do  for  us  is  to  help  to 
regulate  the  body  temperature. 

When  you  have  been  outdoors  in  winter,  your  hands 
and  your  cheeks  often  feel  cold;  but  if  a  thermometer 
such  as  the  doctor  uses  were  placed  in  your  mouth,  it 
would  register  between  98°  and  99°  in  January,  just  as 
it  would  in  August.  This  is  a  very  remarkable  thing — 
that  the  body  should  keep  its  temperature  just  the  same, 
whether  the  air  around  it  is  below  zero  or  nearly  100°. 
We  can  make  machines,  like  the  incubators  used  in 
raising  chickens,  which  will  do  this;  but  they  do  not 
work  nearly  so  perfectly  as  the  human  body  does. 

Have  you  ever  wondered  where  the  body  gets  its 
heat,  in  the  first  place?  You  know,  when  you  get 
into  bed  in  winter,  how  cold  the  sheets  are,  and  how 
nice  and  warm  they  get,  after  you  have  been  under  the 
covers  a  little  while.  All  this  heat  has  been  formed  in 
your  body.  As  you  have  learned  in  Chapter  VII,  the 
heat  of  the  body  is  made  from  the  food.  A  great  deal 
of  this  production  of  heat  goes  on  in  the  muscles,  and 
when  the  muscles  are  actively  exercised,  you  are  likely 
to  get  overheated. 

How  the  Body  Temperature  is  Regulated. — In  order 
that  the  temperature  of  the  body  shall  remain  about 
the  same  all  the  time,  the  amount  of  heat  given  off 
from  the  body  through  the  skin  must  just  equal  that 
which  is  formed  inside  the  body.  In  cold  weather, 
you  might  expect  that  the  body  would  lose  heat  very 
rapidly  and  that  the  blood  flowing  through  the  skin 
would  become  chilled.    The  muscles  in  the  blood  vessels 


THE   CIRCULATION   OF   THE   BLOOD  129 

of  the  skin,  however,  take  care  that  this  shall  not  hap- 
pen. They  contract  and  make  these  vessels  so  small 
that  very  little  blood  can  pass  through  them,  and  so 
the  heat  of  most  of  the  blood  is  kept  shut  up  in  the 
inner  parts  of  the  body. 

When  one  is  in  a  very  warm  room,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  body  has  hard  work  to  get  rid  of  its  heat.  Then 
all  the  blood  vessels  of  the  skin  expand,  so  that  as  much 
blood  as  possible  is  allowed  to  flow  through  and  be 
cooled  by  the  outside  air.  The  cheeks  become  flushed 
in  a  hot  room,  and  the  w^hole  body  becomes  pink  in  a 
hot  bath,  because  of  this  enlargement  of  the  blood 
vessels  of  the  skin. 

There  is  another  change  that  takes  place  when  the 
air  is  warm,  which  helps  a  great  deal  in  regulating  the 
temperature  of  the  body.  All  through  the  skin  there 
are  tiny  organs  called  sweat-glands.  They  pour  out 
sweat,  or  perspiration,  as  soon  as  there  is  danger  that 
the  body  may  become  overheated.  The  moisture  thus 
produced  evaporates  and  cools  the  skin.  You  can  see 
that  the  evaporation  of  moisture  cools  the  skin,  if  you 
wet  your  finger  and  then  hold  it  up  in  a  breeze. 

In  sickness  these  arrangements  are  upset,  and  the 
temperature  of  the  body  often  changes.  If  it  goes  very 
much  above  99°,  we  say  the  person  has  a  fever.  If  one 
feels  half-sick  or  out-of-sorts,  it  is  a  very  good  thing 
to  have  the  temperature  taken,  by  putting  a  special 
kind  of  thermometer  in  the  mouth,  to  see  if  one  has 
fever.  Often  the  rise  in  temperature  is  the  first  sign 
that  an  attack  of  some  disease  is  beginning. 


I30  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Alcohol  and  Tobacco  and  the  Circulation. — ^The 
organs  of  circulation,  the  heart  and  the  blood  vessels, 
are  among  the  most  important  of  all  the  organs  of  the 
body,  and  anything  which  harms  them  will  seriously 
injure  the  health  of  the  body  as  a  whole.  Both  the 
heart  and  the  blood  vessels  are  especially  sensitive  to 
the  effect  of  any  poisons  taken  into  the  body,  for  such 
poisons  get  into  the  blood  and  come  into  direct  contact 
with  their  delicate  walls.  In  old  people,  the  walls  of 
the  arteries  become  hard  and  brittle  and  do  not  do  their 
work  well.  The  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  is  likely  to  in- 
crease this  hardening  of  the  arteries,  making  people  old 
before  their  time. 

Smoking,  particularly  in  young  people,  affects  the 
heart  and  makes  its  action  irregular.  Boys  and  men 
who  are  training  for  athletic  teams  are  never  allowed 
to  use  either  alcohol  or  tobacco. 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  What  is  the  work  which  the  blood  does  for  the  body? 

2.  What  is  the  difference  between  an  artery  and  a  vein? 

3.  What  would  happen  if  the  heart  stopped  beating? 

4.  In  what  ways  may  the  cells  in  the  blood  be  compared  to 
the  ships  on  a  river? 

5.  What  is  the  work  of  the  white  cells  in  the  blood? 

6.  When  the  doctor  feels  your  pulse,  what  can  he  tell  about 
the  action  of  your  heart? 

7.  Who  was  Richard  Coeur-de-Lion?  What  does  the  name 
''Coeur-de-Lion"  mean? 

8.  What  did  Harvey  discover? 

9.  Why  does  the  heart  beat  faster  after  you  have  been  exer- 
cising hard? 


THE   CIRCULATION   OF  THE   BLOOD  131 

10.  Why  is  the  body  warm? 

11.  Why  do  you  fell  warmer  just  after  exercising  briskly? 

12.  What  changes  take  place  in  the  blood  vessels  of  the  skin 
when  you  go  from  a  warm  room  into  cold  outdoor  air?  Why  is 
this  necessary? 

13.  Why  is  it  a  good  plan  to  have  your  temperature  taken 
when  you  feel  out-of-sorts? 


CHAPTER  XII 
KEEPING  THE  SKIN  HEALTHY 

What  the  Skin  Does  for  You. — Of  what  use  is  the 
soft  pink  skin  which  covers  the  body?  First  of  all, 
the  skin  is  like  a  delicate  suit  of  armor,  which  fits  the 
body  very  closely  and  protects  it  against  germs  and 
other  outside  dangers.  If  you  break  the  skin,  microbes 
may  easily  get  in  and  cause  serious  disease;  and  if  it 
were  not  for  the  skin,  the  muscles  and  other  soft,  moist 
organs  inside  would  dry  up  and  perish. 

There  are  a  number  of  other  things  which  the  skin 
does  for  us,  as  you  have  learned  in  earlier  chapters. 

It  is  through  the  tiny  sense  organs  and  nerves  of  the 
skin  that  we  learn,  by  touching  and  feeling,  a  great 
deal  about  the  things  we  handle,  whether  they  are 
hard  or  soft,  hot  or  cold,  rough  or  smooth.  It  is  by 
means  of  the  blood  vessels  in  the  skin  that  the  heat 
formed  in  the  body  is  given  off;  and  by  the  changes  in 
the  amount  of  blood  passing  through  these  vessels  (as 
described  in  the  last  chapter),  the  amount  of  this  heat 
loss  is  controlled  and  the  temperature  of  the  body  as  a 
whole  is  kept  between  98°  and  99°.  The  skin,  too, 
plays  an  important  part  in  getting  rid  of  the  wastes  of 
the  body  by  means  of  the  sweat-glands,  which  pour 
out  these  wastes  in  the  form  of  perspiration. 

All  together,  you  see  that  the  skin  is  a  very  important 

132 


KEEPING  THE   SKIN  HEALTHY 


133 


part  of  the  body.    Everything  possible  ought  to  be  done 
to  keep  it  healthy,  so  that  it  will  do  its  work  well. 

Keeping  Clean. — The  skin  of  the  hands  and  face 
collects  dirt  of  all  sorts,  and  it  takes  a  great  deal  of 
attention,  as  you  know,  to  keep  it  fresh  and  clean. 
The  other  parts  of  the  skin  that  are  covered  by  the 
clothes  need  almost  as  much  care,  because  the  perspira- 
tion, if  not  removed  by 
thorough  washing,  gives 
the  body  and  clothes  an 
unpleasant  odor.  The 
whole  body  ought  to 
be  bathed  once  a 
day  whenever  possible, 
though  in  cold  weather 
it  will  do  in  the  morn- 
ing to  splash  the  water 
over  face,  neck,  chest, 
arms,  and  the  upper  part  of  the  body,  and  then  rub 
the  skin  thoroughly  with  a  rough  towel.  A  real  bath 
with  warm  water  and  soap  should  always  be  taken, 
however,  once  or  twice  a  week. 

The  finger  nails  and  the  hair  grow  out  from  the  skin 
and  are  really  parts  of  it.  They  require  very  special 
care  to  keep  them  tidy.  It  is  unpleasant  to  see  a  child's 
finger  nails  with  a  deep  black  border,  or  his  head  looking 
as  if  he  had  just  slept  in  a  hay  loft.  Mr.  Nailbrush 
and  Mr.  Hairbrush  could  really  have  found  a  good  deal 
to  say  for  themselves  in  the  argument  which  was 
quoted  in  Chapter  IX. 


Fif 


53. — Two  boys'  heads:  which 
do  you  think  is  the  pleasanter 
to  look  at? 


134  HEALTHY  LIVING 

It  is  necessary  to  keep  the  hair  well  brushed,  not 
only  for  appearance's  sake,  but  to  keep  the  skin  of  the 
scalp  healthy;  and  the  hair  should  be  thoroughly  washed 
with  warm  water  and  soap  at  least  once  a  month. 

Warm  and  Cold  Bathing. — Warm  water  is,  of  course, 
the  best  for  cleansing,  but  cold  water  is  good  for  the 
skin  in  another  way.  It  is  bracing  and  stimulating, 
and  it  helps  to  train  the  blood  vessels  of  the  skin  to  do 
their  work  well.  A  person  who  takes  a  cold  bath  every 
morning  is  much  less  likely  to  catch  colds  than  one 
who  has  not  stimulated  his  blood  vessels  in  this  way. 

Some  children  who  are  not  strong  cannot  stand  cold 
baths.  If  a  cold  bath  leaves  a  person  tired  and  the 
skin  pale,  it  is  likely  to  be  dangerous.  A  cold  bath 
followed  by  brisk  rubbing  with  a  rough  towel  is  good 
for  most  people,  however;  and  many  a  child  who  shrinks 
from  cold  water  as  if  it  were  poison,  can  train  himself 
so  that  he  enjoys  it  in  a  little  while.  One  of  the  great 
secrets  of  keeping  the  skin  healthy  is  to  accustom  it  to 
cold  so  that  it  can  bear  cold  readily — provided  one 
does  not  get  so  cold  as  to  cause  a  harmful  chill. 

How  Clothing  Helps  and  Harms  the  Skin. — In  severe 
climates,  like  that  of  the  northern  part  of  the  United 
States,  we  have  to  take  a  good  deal  of  trouble  to  protect 
ourselves  from  extreme  temperatures.  When  we  go  out 
into  the  winter  air,  we  dress  up  warmly  in  clothing 
made  of  wool  cut  from  the  backs  of  sheep  out  on  the 
western  ranges,  or  perhaps  in  a  leather  jacket  made  of 
the  skin  of  an  animal,  or  a  coat  made  of  skin  and 
fur.    All  this  is  necessary  because  in  very  cold  weather 


KEEPING    THE   SKIN   HEALTHY 


135 


the  body  could  not  keep  up  its  temperature  of  98^-99°, 
and  would  become  chilled  so  that  illness  and  perhaps 
even  death  might  result,  if  it  were  not  protected  by 
warm  clothing. 

The  body  loses  heat  very  rapidly  when  it  is  damp. 
It  is,  therefore,  .dangerous  to  have  the  shoes  or  the 


Fig.  54. — What  is  wrorig  about  this  picture? 

clothing  wet.  After  playing  in  the  snow  or  being  out 
in  the  rain,  one  should  change  to  dry  things  at  once  on 
coming  into  the  house. 

It  is  almost  as  bad,  perhaps  quite  as  bad,  for  the 
clothing  to  be  too  heavy  as  not  heavy  enough.  Many 
people  make  themselves  weak  and  sickly  and  unable 
to  resist  even  moderate  cold  by  wearing  too  heavy 
clothing. 

One  of  the  most  dangerous  things  one  can  do  is  to 


136  HEALTHY  LIVING 

get  heated  by  sitting  indoors  or  by  playing  hard  out- 
doors and  then  to  sit  down  in  a  cold  place  with  no  extra 
wraps.  Cfothes  should  be  light  for  indoors  or  for  violent 
exercise,  and  coats  or  wraps  should  be  put  on  for  out- 
doors or  for  sitting  still. 

Fresh  Air. — Just  as  some  people  harm  themselves  by 
wearing  heavier  clothing  than  is  really  needed,  so  a 
great  many  people  injure  their  health  by  keeping  the 
rooms  in  which  they  live  too  warm.  The  still  hot  air 
of  a  close  living  room  or  schoolroom  or  office  makes 
people  dull  and  sleepy.  They  do  not  feel  like  working 
or  playing.  Their  blood  vessels  get  weak  and  flabby, 
so  that  when  they  go  where  it  is  cold,  as  they  sometimes 
must,  they  feel  the  chill  and  very  easily  catch  colds 
and  other  diseases. 

The  air  of  a  close  room  smells  stuffy,  which  is  not 
very  pleasant;  but  the  really  serious  thing  is  that  it  is 
usually  overheated.  The  temperature  of  the  school- 
room or  the  living  room  should  never  get  above  68°.  In 
the  schools  of  certain  cities,  a  large  thermometer  is  set 
up  on  the  front  of  the  teacher's  desk  in  each  classroom, 
with  a  big  red  mark  opposite  68°,  so  that  the  teacher 
can  see  when  the  room  is  getting  too  hot.  It  is  a  good 
thing  to  have  the  thermometer  in  this  conspicuous 
place,  and  it  would  be  still  better  if  some  one  could 
invent  a  thermometer  that  would  ring  a  bell  at  68° 
and  discharge  some  bad  smell  into  the  air  when  it 
got  above  70°.  Then  the  windows  would  have  to 
be  opened. 

Fresh  air — that  is,  cool  moving  air — is  essential  to 


KEEPING   THE   SKIN  HEALTHY  137 

the  healtlfof  the  skin  and  the  skin  blood  vessels  and  to 
the  comfort  and  health  of  the  whole  body. 

Ventilation. — We  shut  ourselves  up  in  heated  build- 
ings in  winter  in  order  to  keep  warm ;  and  if  we  are  not 
careful,  we  get  too  warm,  and  our  health  may  be  se- 
riously injured,  both  by  the  heat  itself  and  by  the  sud- 
den shock  we  feel  when  we  go  out  into  the  chill  outer  air. 
The  remedy  for  this  is  to  introduce  all  the  time  a  supply 
of  moderately  cool  fresh  air;  this  process  is  called  ven- 
tilation. 

In  a  living  room  where  there  are  not  many  people, 
plenty  of  air  will  get  in — if  it  is  cold  outside — through 
cracks  in  the  window  frames  and  floors  and  other 
places.  But  where  a  great  many  people  are  crowded 
together,  as  in  a  schoolroom,  it  is  generally  necessary 
to  provide  some  special  way  for  the  air  to  enter.  Every 
human  body  produces  about  as  much  heat  as  a  candle 
flame,  and  you  can  see  that  if  the  schoolroom  were 
closed  up  tightly  and  a  candle  were  burning  in  each 
seat,  the  room  would  heat  up  quickly. 

In  letting  the  air  in  through  the  windows,  we  must 
be  careful  to  avoid  a  direct  draft  of  very  cold  air  on 
the  people  who  are  sitting  near  them.  Cool  air  is  good 
and  moving  air  is  good,  but  just  as  in  the  case  of  bathing 
and  clothing,  we  must  be  careful  not  to  overdo  it. 
There  are  several  things  that  can  be  done  to  prevent 
dangerous  drafts  of  this  kind.  If  the  steam  radiators 
in  a  schoolroom,  for  example,  are  placed  along  the 
wall  under  the  windows,  they  will  warm  the  incoming 
air.    If  sloping  glass  plates,  called  window-boards,  are 


;8 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


placed  inside  the  window  at  the  bottom,  they  will  shoot 
the  cool  air  up  and  mix  it  with  the  rest  of  the  air  in  the 
room,  so  that  it  will  not  strike  directly  against  any  one. 
In  ventilating  with  windows,  always  remember  that 
the  air  should  have  a  place  to  come  in  and  a  place  to  go 
out.  Warm  air  is  lighter  than  cold  air  and  tends  to 
rise.    So  if  a  window  is  open  a  little  at  the  top  and  a 

little  at  the  bottom,  or  if 
one  window  is  open  at 
the  top  and  another  at 
thie  bottom,  the  cool  fresh 
air  will  come  in  by  the 
lower  opening  and  the 
warm  stale  air  will  pass 
out  by  the  upper  one. 

In  many  schoolrooms 
and  factories  and  in  most 
lecture  halls  and  theaters, 
where  a  very  great  many 
people  are  crowded  to- 
gether, it  is  necessary  to 
provide  more  fresh  air  than  we  can  get  by  opening  win- 
dows. In  such  cases,  the  outside  air  is  drawn  in  at  the 
basement  by  great  revolving  fans,  is  warmed  a  little, 
and  is  then  forced  up  to  the  rooms  through  big  pipes 
built  into  the  building. 

Outdoor  Life. — No  kind  of  ventilation  can  make 
the  air  in  our  houses  and  schools  quite  as  good  as  the 
air  outdoors,  where  the  sun  shines  and  the  wind  blows. 
Every  child  who  wants  to  get  the  most  out  of  life  while 


Fig.  55. — A  good  way  to  arrange 
the  window   so   as   to   ensure 
good  ventilation. 


KEEPING   THE   SKIN  HEALTHY  139 

he  is  a  child,  and  to  be  strong  and  well  when  he  grows 
up,  should  play  in  the  open  air  as  much  as  possible, 
except  when  it  is  very  cold  indeed  or  when  it  is  rainy. 
There  is  plenty  of  time  for  reading  and  sewing  and 
other  indoor  occupations  in  wet  weather  and  in  the 
late  afternoon;  but  swimming,  roller-skating,  bicycling, 
baseball,  and  other  games  in  summer,  and  skating, 
coasting,  and  playing  in  the  snow  in  winter  are  better 
than  books,  while  the  sun  is  shining. 

In  the  sleeping  room,  the  windows  should  always  be 
open,  wide  open  in  summer  and  open  a  few  inches  even 
in  the  coldest  weather,  for  you  cannot  really  get  the 
most  rest  out  of  your  sleep  time  unless  there  is  cool  air 
moving  about  you.  Many  people  find  it  pleasant  and 
healthful  to  sleep  out  of  doors  on  a  sleeping  porch  or 
balcony  and,  where  this  is  possible,  it  is  a  very  good  plan 
to  follow. 

Nancy's  Dream. — Once  upon  a  time  a  little  girl 
named  Nancy  dreamed  that  she  and  her  friend,  Vir- 
ginia, were  walking  together  through  a  wood  in  winter. 
Soon  they  camie  to  a  high  rocky  cliff  that  rose  up  among 
the  trees,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  cliff  was  a  cave. 
A  red  light  shone  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  cave;  and  as 
they  drew  nearer,  holding  each  other's  hands  because 
they  were  just  a  tiny  bit  frightened,  they  saw  that  a 
big  fire  was  burning  inside.  About  the  fire,  little  figures 
were  moving.  When  two  or  three  of  them  came  out 
to  see  who  was  passing,  the  children  were  not  frightened 
any  longer,  for  they  saw  that  the  people  who  lived  in 
the  cave  were  little  Mountain  Elves.    The  Elves  came 


I40  HEALTHY  LIVING 

up  to  Nancy  and  Virginia  and  bowed  very  politely, 
almost  touching  the  ground  with  their  tall,  pointed  caps. 

^^ Won't  you  come  in,  pretty  children,"  they  said, 
^'and  rest  by  our  fire?  You  can  lie  on  soft  couches  of 
pine  needles  in  the  warm  cave,  and  we  will  sing  you 
to  sleep  with  our  sweet  mountain  lullabies." 

''That  sounds  pleasant,"  said  Nancy,  "and  it  is  very 
polite  of  you  to  ask  us." 

''Wait  a  moment,  though,"  said  Virginia.  "Who 
are  these  coming?" 

They  all  looked  around,  and  who  should  come  troop- 
ing through  the  wood  but  a  whole  party  of  Snow 
Fairies,  dancing  and  leaping  and  frolicking,  with  little 
shiny  crowns  of  snow  crystals  in  their  hair. 

"Come  and  play  with  us,  children,"  they  cried, 
"Come  out  and  romp  in  the  snow.  We  will  chase  you 
and  roll  you  over  and  pinch  your  cheeks  with  the  frost, 
till  they  shine  as  pink  as  round  apples  in  the  autumn. 
Our  hearts  are  as  light  as  the  snow  that  the  wind  drives 
before  it,  and  we  sparkle  like  the  snow  crust  when  the 
sun  shines  on  it  through  the  forest." 

"I  want  to  play  with  the  Snow  Fairies,"  cried  Vir- 
ginia joyously. 

"No,"  said  Nancy,  "it  is  cold  and  I  shall  stay  in  the 
cave."  This  was  a  dream,  remember.  In  real  life 
Nancy  and  Virginia  were  such  good  friends  that  nothing 
would  have  separated  them;  but  in  the  dream  Virginia 
went  off  to  play  with  the  Snow  Fairies  and  Nancy 
dozed  in  the  cave  of  the  Mountain  Elves. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  Virginia  and  the  Fairies  came 


KEEPING  THE  SKIN  HEALTHY  141 

storming  back,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  was  in  their  eyes 
and  the  breath  of  the  wind  was  in  their  dancing.  And 
Virginia  cried,  "Oh,  Nancy,  we  have  had  the  most 
wonderful'  time.  We  have  played  tag  among  the  trees 
on  the  smooth  snow  crust,  and  we  have  coasted  down 
the  hills  and  built  snow  houses  in  the  hollows.  I  never 
had  such  a  beautiful  day  in  my  life.  What  have  you 
done,  Nancy?" 

But  Nancy,  having  done  nothing  at  all  but  doze  over 
the  fire,  felt  dull  and  cross  and  sleepy.  So  when  she 
woke  up  after  the  dream  was  all  over,  she  made  up  her 
mind  she  would  go  out  and  play  with  the  Snow  Fairies 
instead  of  staying  by  the  fire,  when  she  had  the  chance 
next  time. 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1 .  Name  four  different  things  that  your  skin  does  for  you. 

2.  Cold  baths  are  generally  taken  in  the  morning  and  warm 
baths  at  night.    See  if  you  can  think  of  any  reason  for  this. 

3.  The  parts  of  the  body  that  are  covered  by  the  clothes  do 
not  come  in  contact  with  dirt  outside.  Why  do  they  need 
washing? 

4.  Describe  the  heads  of  the  two  boys  shown  in  Fig.  53.  Tell 
what  you  think  their  clothes  and  hands  probably  look  like,  and 
what  their  habits  probably  are. 

5.  Why  are  cold  baths  good  for  the  skin?  How  can  you  tell 
whether  your  bath  is  too  cold? 

6.  Why  should  wet  clothes  be  changed  as  soon  as  possible? 

7.  What  should  be  the  highest  temperature  of  the  school- 
room?   What  happens  if  the  schoolroom  gets  too  hot? 

8.  What  is  ventilation? 

9.  How  should  your  sleeping  room  be  ventilated? 


142  HEALTHY  LIVING 

10.  Find  out  how  your  schoolroom  is  ventilated.  If  there  is  a 
special  system  of  ventilation  in  the  building,  find  out  the  loca- 
tion of  the  registers  for  letting  the  air  in  and  out. 

11.  Eleanor  took  a  cold  bath  and  a  brisk  rubdown  every 
morning.  She  played  outdoors  as  much  as  she  could.  She  wore 
wraps  when  it  was  cold,  and  took  them  off  at  once  when  she 
came  into  the  house.  Susan  hated  cold  water,  and  wore  heavy 
clothing  all  the  time,  and  sat  huddled  up  over  the  fire  reading 
in  a  close  room  most  of  the  afternoon.  When  an  epidemic  of 
grip  broke  out  in  the  school,  which  one  do  you  think  caught  it? 
Explain  why. 

12.  Tell  the  story  of  the  Snow  Fairies  and  the  Mountain 
Elves  in  your  own  words.  What  lesson  did  Nancy  learn  from 
her  dream? 


CHAPTER  XIII 
FREEDOM  FROM  BAD  HABITS 

The  Story  of  William  Tell. — Freedom  is  one  of  the 
things  for  which  we  Americans  care  more  than  for  life 
itself.  Again  and  again  the  Stars  and  Stripes  have  gone 
into  battle  for  freedom,  from  the  time  our  nation  was 
born  in  1 776  until  we  entered  the  greatest  of  all  wars  for 
liberty  in  191 7.  So  we  like  to  hear  stories  of  other 
peoples  who  have  fought  for  freedom  against  heavy 
odds;  and  one  of  the  best  stories  of  this  kind  is  about 
William  Tell. 

About  six  hundred  yeg^rs  ago,  according  to  this  stor^^, 
the  Austrian  emperor  had  sent  his  soldiers  into  certain 
parts  of  Switzerland  to  rule  over  the  land.  His  governor 
in  one  part  of  the  country,  according  to  this  story,  was 
a  man  named  Gessler,  who  oppressed  the  unhappy 
Swiss  people  with  every  kind  of  cruelty.  Among  other 
wicked  and  foolish  acts,  he  set  up  in  a  certain  town  a  tall 
pole  with  an  Austrian  cap  on  the  top  of  it,  and  he  or- 
dered that  every  one  who  passed  should  uncover  his 
head  before  the  Austrian  cap,  as  a  sign  of  reverence  for 
the  emperor. 

There  was  a  party  of  brave  Swiss  who  were  not  willing 
to  submit  to  the  tyrants,  and  among  them  was  a  famous 
bowman  named  William  Tell.  (There  were  no  guns  like 
ours,   in   those   days.     Men  fought  with   crossbows, 

143 


144  HEALTHY  LIVING 

which  shot  arrows  instead  of  bullets.)  Tell  and  his 
little  son  walked  past  the  pole  one  day  and  did  not 
take  off  their  caps  to  pay  respect  to  Austria.  They 
were  quickly  arrested  by  the  soldiers;  and  Gessler 
thought  of  a  cruel  punishment,  which  he  hoped  would 
frighten  the  people  and  make  them  submit.  He  bal- 
anced an  apple  on  the  boy's  head  and  said  to  the  father : 
"I  hear  you  are  a  great  shot  with  the  crossbow.  Let 
me  see  you  cut  that  apple  in  half  with  an  arrow.  If 
you  miss  it,  I  will  have  you  put  to  death." 

Gessler  thought  that  both  the  boy  and  his  father 
would  be  frightened,  and  that  Tell  would  either  kill 
his  own  son  or  miss  entirely.  But  the  boy  stood  up  as 
firm  as  a  rock  and  smiled  bravely  at  his  father;  and 
William  Tell  himself  aimed  coolly  and  hit  the  apple  right 
in  the  middle,  so  that  it  fell  in  two  pieces,  without  a 
hair  of  his  son's  head  being  injured.  A  great  shout  of 
joy  went  up  from  the  people.  As  the  gallant  archer 
turned  away,  a  second  arrow  fell  from  his  belt. 

"What  was  that  second  arrow  for?"  asked  the  gov- 
ernor. 

'^To  have  shot  you,  if  the  first  had  slain  my  son," 
replied  William  Tell. 

For  this  bold  reply  he  was  arrested  again;  but  he 
escaped  and  later  he  killed  Gessler  with  one  of  his  swift 
arrows.  According  to  the  story,  this  was  the  beginning 
of  the  long  war  in  which  the  Austrian s  were  finally 
driven  from  Swiss  soil,  so  that  Switzerland  became  free, 
as  she  is  to  this  day. 

Some  Enemies  to  Freedom. — Freedom,  of  course, 


FREEDOM  FROM  BAD  HABITS 


145 


does  not  mean  that  each  of  us  is  free  to  do  just  as  he 
Hkes  without  consideration  for  the  good  of  other  people. 
A  man  who  is  free  is  one  who  can  do  what  he  beHeves 
is  right,  so  long  as  it  does  not  harm  any  one  else.    The 


Fig.  56.— William  Tell  was  able  to  hit  the  apple  on  his  son's  head  and 
defy  the  tyrant  because  both  he  and  the  boy  had  strong  muscles 
and  steady  nerves. 

things  that  Gessler  wanted  William  Tell  to  do  were 
foolish  and  wicked.  We  are  all  glad  the  Swiss  fought 
successfully  against  the  Austrians;  and  we  Americans 
will  always  be  ready  to  fight  against  any  one  who  tries 
by  force  to  make  weaker  peoples  do  what  is  wrong. 

There  are  other  things,  however,  that  rob  people  of 
their  freedom,  besides  kings  and  emperors.    There  are 


146  HEALTHY  LIVING 

men  and  women  in  the  United  States  to-day,  men  and 
women  in  your  own  state  and  town,  who  are  not  free. 
Do  you  know  what  it  is  that  makes  them  slaves,  that 
keeps  them  from  doing  what  they  know  is  really  good 
and  right? 

You  have  learned  in  an  earlier  chapter  something 
about  habits — ^how  easy  it  is  to  form  them,  and  how 
hard  it  often  is  to  break  them  after  they  are  formed, 
whether  they  be  good  habits  or  bad.  It  is  had  habits 
that  rule  over  these  people  we  have  been  thinking  of, 
as  Gessler  tried  to  rule  over  the  Swiss, — the  habit  of 
eating  or  drinking  or  smoking  some  particular  thing 
that  is  bad  for  them,  that  they  know  is  bad  for  them  ^ 
but  have  not  the  strength  of  character  to  give  up. 
When  a  man  says,  ''I  cannot  get  along  without  my 
coffee,"  or  ''I  must  have  a  cigar,  for  I  cannot  work 
without  it,"  or  "I  am  no  good  without  my  glass  of 
wine  or  of  whiskey," — he  is  not  a  free  man  but  a  slave 
to  a  bad  habit.  It  is  part  of  the  duty  of  a  good  Amer- 
ican to  keep  himself  free  from  such  habits,  as  well  as 
free  from  tyrants  of  the  human  kind. 

Tea  and  Coffee. — The  fact  that  tea  and  coffee  some- 
times become  tyrants  does  not  mean  that  such  drinks 
are  necessarily  bad.  For  grown  people,  particularly 
when  they  have  been  working  hard,  a  cup  of  tea  or 
coffee  is  often  a  good  thing.  Tea  and  coffee  are  what 
are  called  stimulants,  that  is,  they  make  a  person  who 
is  tired  feel  fresher  and  more  vigorous  for  a  time. 

The  use  of  stimulants,  however,  is  something  like  urg- 
ing on  a  tired  horse.    Sometimes  when  there  is  just  a 


FREEDOM   FROM   BAD   HABITS  147 

little  way  farther  to  go,  we  may  have  to  do  it;  but  if 
a  tired  horse  is  driven  too  far,  he  will  break  down.  If  a 
tired  body  is  forced  to  work  too  hard,  it  is  likely  to 
break  down,  too.  Above  all,  it  is  very  dangerous  to 
depend  on  stimulants  so  that  we  grow  to  need  them  all 
the  time,  and  cannot  work  or  enjoy  life  without  them. 
Then  one  has  become  a  slave,  which  a  real  American 
will  never  be. 

A  child  has  no  necessity  for  stimulants  at  all.  Older 
people  may  sometimes  be  so  tired  that  they  need  them, 
but  no  healthy  child  ever  does.  A  child  is  much  more 
sensitive  to  the  harmful  effects  of  tea  and  coffee  than 
a  grown  person;  and  the  use  of  these  drinks  may  do 
children  serious  harm. 

The  Tobacco  Habit. — Another  of  the  habits  for 
which  people  sometimes  give  up  a  good  share  of  their 
freedom  is  smoking. 

The  use  of  tobacco  is  more  objectionable  than  the 
use  of  tea  and  coffee.  Smoking  is  an  expensive  habit, 
for  a  good  deal  of  money  is  burnt  up  in  the  course  of  a 
year  in  the  form  of  cigars  or  cigarettes.  It  is  an  un- 
pleasant habit  for  those  who  do  not  share  it,  since  it 
fills  the  air  and  the  clothes  and  the  hair  of  every  one 
in  the  room  with  stale-smelling  smoke.  It  is  a  habit 
which  may  do  serious  damage  to  the  health.  People 
who  smoke  a  great  deal  injure  the  soft,  delicate  surfaces 
of  the  nose  and  throat  and  are  likely  to  have  a  nasty, 
dry  cough  as  a  result.  They  injure  their  digestions  and 
their  hearts;  a  heavy  smoker  cannot  exercise  actively 
without  panting  and  puffing,  because  his  heart  is  usually 


148  HEALTHY  LIVING 

not  strong  enough  to  supply  the  needs  of  his  muscles 
fully.  They  injure  their  nerves  and  their  brains.  The 
hand  of  a  hard  smoker  often  trembles  as  a  result  of 
this  action  upon  the  nerves.    Boys  and  men  who  are 


.  Fig.  57. — ^Men  and  boys  who  are  members  of 
athletic  teams  are  never  allowed  to  use 
alcohol  or  tobacco. 

training  for  rowing  and  football  and  other  athletic  con- 
tests are  never  allowed  to  smoke. 

As  in  the  case  of  tea  and  coffee — only  much  more  so — 
the  danger  from  tobacco  is  most  serious  in  youth. 
Grov^TL  people  can  smoke  a  little  without  harm,  provided 
they  do  not  form  so  strong-  a  habit  that  they  are  no 


FREEDOM   FROM   BAD   HABITS  149 

longer  free  to  stop  when  they  wish.  For  children  and 
young  people,  tobacco  is  always  harmful.  No  boy  who 
wants  to  be  strong  and  well,  a  successful  man  and  a 
good  citizen,  will  touch  it  in  any  form. 

Medicines  and  When  to  Use  Them. — When  you 
are  ill,  the  doctor  is  sent  for,  and  sometimes  perhaps 
he  gives  you  medicines.  These  medicines,  or  the  sub- 
stances they  contain,  called  drugs,  are  given  for  par- 
ticular effects  they  have  on  the  body,  to  remedy  some- 
thing that  is  going  wrong.  For  instance,  if  a  person  is 
very  ill  and  his  heart  is  weak,  a  stimulant  drug  may 
be  given  to  make  the  heart  beat  more  strongly.  Only 
the  doctor  can  know  when  drugs  should  be  given, 
what  ones  to  use  and  how  much  of  each;  and  even 
doctors  nowadays  do  not  use  drugs  nearly  as  much  as 
they  used  to. 

Yet  some  people  who  ought  to  know  better  take 
medicines  without  asking  the  doctor  at  all,  medicines 
perhaps  which  are  sold  at  the  drug  store  with  labels 
claiming  that  the}^  will  cure  all  sorts  of  diseases.  Such 
medicines  are  almost  always  useless.  Many  of  them 
are  absolute  frauds,  put  up  simply  to  cheat  people  out 
of  their  money;  and  others  contain  dangerous  drugs 
which  may  do  very  serious  harm. 

The  most  dangerous  of  all  medicines  are  certain  drugs 
which  affect  the  brain  and  nerves,  and  w^hich  people 
get  in  the  habit  of  taking  and  soon  cannot  get  along 
without.  The  most  unfortunate  people  on  earth  are 
those  who  have  lost  their  freedom  by  becoming  slaves 
to  certain  of  these  drugs. 


I50  HEALTHY  LIVING 

The  only  safe  rule  is  never  to  use  medicines  or  drugs 
of  any  kind,  except  under  the  doctor's  orders. 

Alcohol  as  a  Drug. — There  is  one  harmful  drug  which 
many  people  have  unfortunately  used  more  or  less 
regularly  in  their  daily  life.  This  drug  is  alcohol,  which 
is  present  in  wines  of  various  kinds  and  ale  and  beer, 
and  in  much  larger  amount  in  "strong  drinks,"  such 
as  rum,  gin,  brandy,  and  whiskey. 

Alcohol  is  not  a  stimulant,  like  tea  or  coffee.  It 
does  not  wake  a  person  up,  but  rather  puts  him  partly 
to  sleep.  At  first  it  affects  only  certain  parts  of  the 
brain  and  particularly  the  inhibitions  which  you  learned 
about  in  Chapter  V.  What  do  you  think  will  be  the 
result  if  something  happens  to  make  the  inhibitions 
work  less  effectively?  A  person  who  has  taken  a  drug 
of  this  kind  would  be  likely  to  do  things  and  say  things 
that  he  would  have  too  much  sense  and  judgment  to 
do  or  say  if  he  were  not  under  its  influence,  would  he 
not?  That  is  just  the  effect  of  alcoholic  drinks  if  they 
are  used  in  excess;  and  a  very  little  may  be  an  excess 
for  many  people.  So  the  alcoholic  drinks  are  excellent 
examples  of  things  that  take  away  the  freedom  which 
is  the  privilege  of  every  American  citizen,  the  freedom 
to  do  always  what  one  really  believes  to  be  right  and 
proper  to  do.  No  one  who  is  under  the  influence  of 
alcohol  is  a  free  man. 

The  Effect  of  Alcoholic  Drinks  on  Health. — When 
alcoholic  drinks  are  used  in  excess,  they  do  direct  dam- 
age to  many  different  organs  of  the  body.  They  may 
injure  the  delicate  walls  of  the  stomach.    They  damage 


FREEDOM   FROM   BAD   HABFrS  151 

the  liver  and  the  kidneys.  They  cause  disease  in  the 
heart  and  the  walls  of  the  blood  vessels.  These  effects 
are  so  serious  that  people  who  drink  a  large  amount 
of  alcoholic  liquor — and  also  those  who  drink  only 
moderate  amounts  but  do  it  as  a  regular  thing  year 
after  year — do  not  live  so  long,  on  the  average,  as  those 
who  are  free  from  this  habit. 

Alcoholic  Drinks  and  Success  in  Life. — Long  before 
alcohol  shows  its  effect  upon  the  health  of  the  liver 
and  blood  vessels  and  the  other  organs  mentioned,  it 
begins  to  influence  the  nerves  and  brain,  and  through 
them  lessens  the  power  to  do  any  sort  of  hard  and  skilful 
work.  Even  a  single  drink  of  the  stronger  alcoholic 
liquors  affects  the  quickness  of  a  man's  nerves  and  the 
accuracy  of  his  actions.  He  becomes  a  little  bit  slow 
and  a  little  bit  clumsy. 

The  world  nowadays  has  not  much  use  for  slow  and 
clumsy  people.  In  the  factory  and  in  the  ofhce,  a  man 
or  a  woman  must  think  quickly  and  act  quickly;  and 
the  one  who  will  get  to  the  top  is  the  one  who  can  do 
the  work  best  and  in  the  shortest  time.  So  most  of  the 
large  employers  of  labor  will  not,  if  they  can  help  it,  em- 
ploy a  man  who  drinks  alcoholic  liquors.  Many  rail- 
roads, for  instance,  forbid  their  men  to  use  alcohol  at  all. 
Think  what  might  happen  on  a  railroad  if  the  engineer's 
brain  were  not  perfectly  clear  and  his  hand  perfectly 
steady.  The  lives  of  the  people  on  the  train  may  de- 
pend on  his  seeing  a  signal  and  stopping  at  the  right 
moment;  and  those  lives  will  be  in  danger  if  he  has 
clouded  his  brain  by  drinking  alcoholic  liquor. 


152 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


It  is  not  only  personal  success  that  a  man  gives  up  if 
he  becomes  a  slave  to  the  habit  of  using  alcohol.    The 


Fig.  58. — The  safety  of  hundreds  of  people  depends  on  the 
sureness  and  the  quickness  of  the  man  who  drives  the 
locomotive.  If  he  should  weaken  his  power  of  control 
by  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquor,  all  their  lives  would  be 
in  danger. 

railroad  engineer  who  wrecks  his  train  because  he  was 
not  sober  is  himself  one  of  hundreds  who  may  perhaps 
be  killed  as  a  result.  Whenever  we  do  any  of  our  work 
badly,  it  hurts  some  one  else. 


FREEDOM   FROM   BAD   HABITS  153 

The  Cost  of  Alcohol. — The  habit  of  using  alcohoHc 
drinks  is  a  very  expensive  and  a  very  wasteful  habit. 
It  wastes  health,  on  account  of  the  direct  damage  done 
to  the  drinkers.  It  wastes  time  and  energy,  on  account 
of  the  poorer  work  they  do.  It  wastes  the  money  which 
it  costs  to  build  and  keep  up  the  factories  where  the 
alcohohc  drinks  are  made.  It  wastes  the  valuable  food 
substances  which  are  used  to  make  them. 

Wines  are  made  from  grapes,  by  pressing  out  the 
juice  and  letting  it  stand  and  ferment.  Fermentation 
is  a  change  of  the  sugar  in  the  grapes  into  alcohol  and 
other  substances,  and  this  change  is  brought  about  by 
the  action  of  microscopic  plants  called  yeasts  (like  the 
yeast  in  a  yeast  cake).  Most  alcoholic  liquors,  except 
wines,  are  made  in  a  similar  way  from  grains  of  various 
kinds.  You  know  that  since  the  Great  War  began  there 
has  not  been  enough  grain  in  the  world  to  feed  all  the 
people  who  need  it;  so  that  in  Belgium  and  France  and 
Russia  there  are  many  people  who  are  very  hungry. 
It  is  a  bad  thing  to  take  the  grain  that  men  and  women 
and  children  need  to  keep  them  alive,  and  turn  it  into 
alcoholic  drinks  which  can  only  do  harm. 

Alcohol  in  War  Time  and  After. — When  a  nation 
goes  to  war,  every  one  must  work  harder  and  better 
than  ever  before  for  the  common  good.  The  men  in 
the  army,  the  men  and  the  women  in  the  factories  and 
on  the  farms  and  in  the  shipyards,  the  women  who  are 
saving  food  at  home  and  working  for  the  Red  Cross, — 
yes,  and  the  children,  too,  in  the  Junior  Red  Cross, — 
every  one  must  do  his  or  her  ver>^  best.    There  is  no 


154  HEALTHY  LIVING 

room  any  more  for  people  who  are  made  slow  and 
stupid  by  the  use  of  alcohol. 

So,  very  early  in  the  Great  War  which  began  in  191 4, 
Russia  stopped  the  sale  of  strong  alcoholic  drinks. 
Then  France  and  England  passed  laws  to  limit  the  use 
of  strong  drinks.  They  knew  that  no  nation  can  do 
anything  with  all  its  might  if  its  people  are  dulled  by 
alcohol.  America  came  into  the  war,  and  the  same 
thing  happened  here.  President  Wilson  stopped  the 
making  of  strong  alcoholic  drinks  during  the  war,  and 
the  Congress  at  Washington  passed  an  amendment  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  which,  when 
agreed  to  by  two-thirds  of  the  states  of  the  Union, 
would  forbid  the  sale  of  all  kinds  of  alcoholic  liquors 
throughout  our  country. 

These  lessons  learned  in  war  time  as  to  the  harmful 
effects  of  alcohol  will  not  be  forgotten.  As  a  result  of 
the  war,  it  seems  likely  that  millions  of  people  will  be 
freed  from  the  habit  of  using  alcoholic  liquors,  a  habit 
which  has  perhaps  done  more  harm  in  the  world  than 
even  tyrannical  emperors*  and  kings. 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Tell  the  story  of  William  Tell  and  the  tyrant,  Gessler. 
What  lessons  does  it  teach? 

2.  What  sort  of  things,  besides  tyrannical  kings,  may  rob 
people  of  their  freedom? 

3.  What  is  a  stimulant?  What  happens  if  stimulants  are 
used  too  much? 

4.  What  are  some  of  the  objections  to  the  use  of  tobacco? 

5.  Two  high  school  boys  were  training  for  an  athletic  team. 


FREEDOM   FROM   BAD   HABITS  155 

Their  captain  had  warned  them  not  to  smoke.  One  of  them  did 
as  he  was  told,  but  the  other  had  formed  the  habit  of  using 
cigarettes  and  went  on  using  them  in  secret.  Tell  which  one 
was  the  freer  of  these  two  boys,  the  one  who  did  what  he  was 
told  or  the  one  who  did  not,  and  explain  why. 

6.  Why  is  it  foolish  to  use  medicines  without  asking  the  doc- 
tor? 

7.  What  effects  does  alcohol  have  on  the  activities  of  the 
body? 

8.  Explain  why  it  is  dangerous  for  a  man  who  drives  an  auto- 
mobile to  use  alcoholic  drinks. 

9.  What  are  wines  made  from?  What  are  beer  and  whiskey 
and  most  other  alcoholic  drinks  made  from?  What  better  use 
could  be  made  of  the  materials  from  which  these  drinks  are 
manufactured? 

10.  Why  did  most  of  the  great  nations  limit  the  use  of  alco- 
holic drinks  in  war  time?  Do  the  same  reasons  apply  in  times 
of  peace? 


CHAPTER  XIV 
OUR  UNSEEN  ENEMIES 

Daniel  Boone,  the  Indian  Fighter. — Did  you  ever 
think  that  the  place  where  you  now  Hve  was  once  upon 
a  time  deep  forest  or  open  prairie,  with  no  houses  or 
farms  but  only  wild  beasts  and  a  few  Indian  huts? 
Perhaps  it  is  a  great  city  now  with  tall  buildings  and 
trolley  cars;  or  it  may  be  a  pleasant  countryside  of 
rich  farms  and  peaceful  villages.  A  hundred  years  ago, 
however, — or  two  hundred  or  three  hundred, — it  was 
all  wild  country.  The  first  explorers  were  in  constant 
danger  from  the  forest  creatures  and  the  Indians,  and 
they  knew  they  might  have  to  fight  for  their  lives  and 
the  lives  of  their  families  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or 
night.  Perhaps  you  have  seen  pictures  of  the  Puritans 
in  New  England  going  to  church  on  a  Sunday  morning, 
each  man  with  his  gun  on  his  shoulder,  ready  in  case 
an  Indian  attack  should  come. 

After  the  Atlantic  states  had  been  settled,  the  white 

men  pushed  farther  and  farther  west.     In  each  place. 

the  brave  pioneers  took  possession  of  the  new  lands  at 

the  risk  of  their  own  lives.     One  of  the  most  famous 

of  these  pioneers  was  Daniel  Boone.    He  was  born  more 

than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  in  Virginia;  but  he 

soon  sought  for  adventure  in  the  unknown  lands  to  the 

west.    He  and  five  other  companions  pushed  out  into 

156 


OUR   UNSEEN   ENEMIES 


157 


the  wilderness  of  what  is  now  Kentucky.  Boone  was 
taken  prisoner  by  the  Indians,  but  made  his  escape  and 
lived  for  nearly  two  years  in  the  forest,  part  of  the  time 
alone  and  part  of  the  time  with  his  brother,  who  had 
followed  him  from  their  home.    The  Boones  were  mighty 


Fig.  5Q. — Daniel  Boone,  pioneer  fighter  of  wild  beasts  and  Indians. 
The  microbes  must  be  fought  to-day,  as  the  bears  and  wolves 
were  fought  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

hunters  and  trapped  and  killed  bears  and  other  wild 
animals,  so  as  to  make  furs  out  of  the  skins. 

In  1775  Daniel  Boone  went  out  with  a  large  party 
and  built  a  fort  of  logs  at  the  place  now  called  Boones- 
borough.  Three  times  this  fort  was  attacked  by  the 
Indians,  and  the  last  time  there  were  four  hundred  and 
fifty  of  them  against  Boone's  little  force  of  fifty  men. 


158  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Can  you  imagine  the  wooden  fort  with  narrow  loop- 
holes through  which  the  guns  of  the  white  men  were 
pointing,  as  the  Indians  came  dashing  out  of  the  forest 
to  the  attack?  No  enemies  had  any  terrors,  however, 
for  Boone  and  his  companions.  They  beat  off  the 
Indians,  even  though  they  were  nine  to  one  against, 
them;  and  after  this  the  fort  at  Boonesborough  was 
never  attacked  again. 

We  ought  always  to  remember  gratefully  these  brave 
men  who  went  out  into  new  lands  and  killed  the  wild 
beasts  and  cut  down  the  forests  so  that  we  could  have 
farms  and  villages  and  cities  and  enjoy  them  in  peace. 

Our  Enemies  of  To-day. — We  do  not  have  to  fight 
wild  animals  any  more.  Daniel  Boone  and  other 
pioneers  have  driven  them  away,  so  that  we  can  live 
in  peace  so  far  as  they  are  concerned.  There  are  still 
enemies  about  us,  however,  in  every  city  and  town  and 
country  village.  You  never  hear  your  father  say  that 
Mr.  Smith  or  Mr.  Jones  has  been  killed  by  a  bear,  as 
Daniel  Boone's  children  must  have  sometimes  heard 
their  father  say  when  he  came  home  from  hunting. 
But  you  do  sometimes  hear  that  Mr.  Jones  or  Mr. 
Smith  has  died  of  typhoid  fever  or  tuberculosis  or 
pneumonia.  It  is  against  these  diseases  that  we  must 
fight,  as  our  great-grandfathers  or  great-great-grand- 
fathers fought  against  wild  beasts  in  earlier  da3^s. 

There  are  some  kinds  of  sickness  that  we  cannot 
avoid.  When  a  person  grows  old,  he  gradually  becomes 
less  and  less  vigorous  and  at  last  is  sure  to  suffer  from 
sickness  of  some  kind.    In  youth  and  even  in  childhood 


OUR   UNSEEN   ENEMIES  159 

certain  people  are  naturally  not  so  strong  as  others. 
These  effects  of  old  age,  and  the  natural  differences 
between  one  person  and  another,  cannot  be  helped. 
There  is  another  class  of  diseases,  however,  which  are 
not  the  result  of  any  necessary  weakness  of  the  body 
but  are  caused  by  something  which  comes  from  out- 
side, an  enemy  just  as  real  as  the  Indians  who  attacked 
the  fort  at  Boonesborough;  and  such  diseases  can  be 
avoided. 

The  enemies  which  cause  the  diseases  we  are  thinking 
about  are  the  tiny  living  things  called  microbes  or 
germs,  discussed  in  Chapter  IX.  They  are  so  small,  you 
remember,  that  we  cannot  see  them  at  all,  except  by 
using  a  very  powerful  microscope.  They  are  smaller 
even  than  the  cells  of  the  blood  that  were  described 
on  page  123.  Yet  it  is  these  microbes  that  cause 
some  of  the  commonest  diseases  from  which  people 
suffer — from  colds  to  diseases  like  tuberculosis, — and 
they  kill  more  people  in  the  United  States  in  one  year 
than  the  Indians  ever  did  in  the  whole  history  of  the 
country. 

Fighting  the  Microbes  of  Disease. — ^You  have  prob- 
ably seen  a  jar  of  jelly  or  preserves  that  had  become 
spoiled,  with  patches  of  mold  on  the  top  of  it.  This 
mold  is  a  microbe,  which  grows  in  masses  so  large  that 
you  can  see  them;  and  microbes  produce  disease  very 
much  as  the  mold  microbe  spoils  the  jelly.  Each  kind 
of  microbe  causes  its  own  particular  sickness — one, 
diphtheria;  another,  measles;  another,  scarlet  fever; 
another,  whooping  cough.    When  a  child  has  diphtheria, 


i6o 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


for  instance,  it  is  simply  because  the  germ  of  diphtheria 
has  gotten  into  his  throat  and  is  growing  there  and  poison- 
ing his  whole  body.     If  we  could  keep  out  the  microbes, 


Fig.  60. — ^Louis  Pasteur,  the  great  Frenchman 
who  discovered  that  microbes  were  the  cause 
of  many  of  our  deadb'est  diseases. 

that  child  would  never  have  diphtheria;  and  in  the  case 
of  many  such  diseases,  we  have  learned  how  to  protect 
ourselves  very  effectively  from  these  invisible  enemies. 
The  man  who  first  showed  how  to  conquer  the  dis- 
eases  caused  by  microbes  was  a  great  Frenchman 


OUR   UNSEEN   ENEMIES  i6i 

named  Louis  Pasteur  (pas  tiir').  Fifty  years  ago  no  one 
knew  the  cause  of  typhoid  fever  or  tuberculosis  or  any 
of  the  other  diseases  of  this  kind.  People  fell  sick, 
sometimes  one  or  two  at  a  time,  sometimes  by  hun- 
dreds and  thousands,  and  there  was  little  that  any  one 
could  do  to  protect  them.  It  was  like  fighting  against 
Indians  that  you  could  not  see  at  all.  What  chance 
would  there  be  if  invisible  enemies  could  shoot  off  their 
arrows  at  you,  and  you  could  never  tell  where  they  were 
and  could  never  see  them  to  strike  back? 

It  was  Pasteur  who  first  revealed  to  us  our  microbe 
enemies.  By  the  use  of  the  microscope,  he  found  that 
in  the  bodies  of  animals  and  men  suffering  from  cer- 
tain diseases  tiny  living  germs  were  growing.  At  first 
no  one  would  believe  that  they  had  anything  to  do 
with  causing  sickness;  but  Pasteur  worked  patiently 
on  and  showed  that  in  each  of  these  diseases  there  was 
a  special  kind  of  microbe,  and  that  this  particular 
microbe  was,  in  each  case,  the  cause  of  the  disease. 

Microbes  as  Friends  and  Foes. — ^There  are  many 
different  kinds  of  microbes,  and  only  a  few 'can  pro- 
duce disease.  There  are  microbes  all  about  us,  a  few 
floating  in  the  air,  a  few  in  the  water  we  drink  and  the 
food  we  eat,  more  in  the  dust  on  the  floor,  a  great  many 
in  the  earth  in  the  garden,  and  a  great  many  in  the 
mouths  and  alimentary  canals  of  people  and  of  animals. 
Most  of  them  are  entirely  harmless,  and  some,  as  we 
shall  see,  are  really  good  friends  of  ours. 

The  Bacteria. — ^The  commonest  kind  of  microbes  are 
called  bacteria.     They  are  really  very  small,  plants; 


i62  HEALTHY  LIVING 

and  if  you  were  to  look  at  them  under  the  microscope, 

they  would  look  something  like  the  things  you  see  in 

Figure  6i.     You  never  would  think  they  were  living 

plants,  would  you?    They  look  like  little  sticks  or  balls, 

and  are  so  small  that  400,000,000  of  them  could  be 

packed  into  a  single  grain  of  granulated  sugar.    Yet 

/•.  they  are  reallv  alive. 

)fi  i      %  ^j     Some    of    them    can 

cS  "^  {?  \\     niove  about,  and  under 

V   1  /  \     the     microscope    you 

can  see  them  swim- 
ming along  quite  mer- 
rily. 

d\  W    living     in     something 

which   they   can  feed 
^\^  ^^  upon,  they  grow  larger 

'ilV  ^  ..•  "7^  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^  splits  in  half, 

Fig.  61— The  shapes  of  some  of  the  and     you      have      two 

commoner  kinds  of  bacteria,  as  they  microbes    where    there 

are  seen  under  the  microscope.  ^^^    ^^^^    ^^^    ^^^^^^^ 

While  they  are  doing  this,  they  are  destroying  the  sub- 
stance they  are  feeding  on,  and  often  they  change  its 
appearance  and  its  smell  and  its  taste,  so  as  to  ''spoil'' 
it,  as  we  say.  The  decay  of  meat,  the  souring  of  milk, 
the  molding  of  jellies  and  preserves,  are  all  the  result 
of  the  action  of  the  bacteria  or  other  microbes  which 
are  growing  in  them.  If  there  were  no  microbes,  food 
would  not  spoil  at  all.     When  your  mother  puts  up 


I N*^  -^\^  J  ^  When   bacteria    are 


OUR   UNSEEN   ENEMIES  163 

preserves,  she  heats  the  jars  and  the  preserves  them- 
selves, so  as  to  kill  all  the  microbes  that  may  be  there; 
and  if  the  preserves  do  not  keep,  it  is  because  some 
of  the  microbes  were  not  killed  or  others  got  in  after- 
ward. 

Some  Helpful  Microbes. — Some  kinds  of  microbes 
are  really  helpful  to  us.  The  taste  of  butter  is  the  result 
of  the  action  of  bacteria  growing  in  the  cream  from 
which  the  butter  was  made.  The  flavor  of  cheese  is 
produced  by  other  microbes.  Vinegar  is  made  from 
apple  juice  by  the  action  of  microbes.  Above  all,  the 
microbes  which  live  in  the  soil  are  very  useful  indeed 
in  helping  to  make  the  soil  rich  and  fertile  so  that  plants 
can  grow  in  it. 

In  far-northern  Iceland,  people  used  to  believe  that 
there  were  two  sorts  of  elves  or  fairies.  The  White 
Elves  were  good  fairies,  w^ho  helped  bake  the  bread  and 
churn  the  butter,  who  found  things  that  were  lost, 
and  sometimes  swept  the  floor  and  tidied  up  a  room 
that  had  been  left  in  disorder  overnight.  The  Bad 
Elves,  on  the  other  hand,  were  mischief  makers,  who 
hid  and  broke  things  about  the  house,  pinched  the  cat's 
tail  to  frighten  it  when  it  was  asleep,  and  led  people 
astray  at  night  in  the  marshes  by  showing  false  Hghts 
where  there  were  no  houses  at  all.  The  microbes  are 
really  somewhat  like  these  in\dsible  fairies.  We  cannot 
see  them,  but  they  are  all  about  us.  Some  of  them 
are  our  friends,  like  the  ones  that  make  cheese  and 
work  in  the  soil;  some  are  our  enemies,  like  those  that 
spoil  foods  and  those  that  cause  disease. 


1 64  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Where  the  Disease  Microbes  Come  From. — Most 
plants  and  animals  have  a  special  sort  of  place  where 
they  live,  and  we  never  find  them  anywhere  else.  Cer- 
tain fishes  live  in  the  sea.  Other  kinds  of  fishes  can 
live  only  in  fresh-water  lakes.  Certain  birds,  like  the 
sea-gulls,  are  found  only  near  the  ocean.  Certain  kinds 
of  insects  live  under  stones  or  in  old  decaying  logs, 
while  others  fly  about  in  the  sunny  meadows.  It  is 
very  much  the  same  with  the  microbes.  Some  can  live 
in  earth,  others  in  water;  and  the  kinds  that  cause  hu- 
man sickness  can  live  and  thrive  only  in  the  human 
body. 

This  is  one  of  the  great  lessons  that  we  have  learned 
from  the  work  of  Pasteur:  that  the  germs  of  disease  do 
not  come  from  the  air  or  the  soil  but  from  the  bodies  of 
people.  We  know  now  why  diseases  of  the  kind  that 
are  caused  by  microbes  are  ^^ catching."  When  we  say 
some  one  has  "caught"  cold,  we  mean  that  he  has  been 
near  some  one  else  who  had  a  cold,  and  that  the  mi- 
crobes that  cause  a  cold  have  been  passed  from  one 
person  to  the  other.  Measles,  scarlet  fever,  whooping 
cough,  diphtheria,  typhoid  fever,  pneumonia,  tuber- 
culosis, and  many  more  are  diseases  that  are  "  catching  " 
or  contagious. 

The  person  from  whom  you  "catch"  one  of  these 
diseases  need  not  necessarily  be  ill  himself.  Sometimes 
if  one  is  strong  and  well,  the  germs  of  a  certain  disease 
may  get  into  his  throat,  for  instance,  and  live  there 
for  a  while  without  making  him  ill.  Yet  this  person 
can  pass  on  some  of  these  germs  to  some  one  else  who 


OUR  UNSEEN   ENEMIES  165 

is  not  so  strong,  and  the  second  person  may  fall  sick 
as  a  result.  Well  people  who  have  the  germs  of  dis- 
ease growing  in  their  bodies  in  this  way  are  called 
carriers,  because  they  carry  the  microbes  about  with 
them. 

Disease  germs  can  live  for  a  little  while  on  things 
that  have  been  handled  by  a  sick  person  or  a  carrier — 
in  food,  for  instance,  or  on  handkerchiefs.  Soon,  how- 
ever, they  will  die,  unless  they  get  into  the  body  of 
another  human  being,  where  they  can  begin  to  grow 
again.  Now  you  can  see  how  it  is  possible  to  prevent 
these  diseases.  Since  every  cold  in  the  head,  every 
case  of  measles,  scarlet  fever,  or  any  other  sickness  of 
this  kind,  is  caused  by  the  passing  on  of  germs  from 
one  person  to  another,  we  can  stop  the  disease  by  pre- 
venting the  spread  of  the  germs. 

How  the  Disease  Microbes  Pass  from  One  Person 
to  Another. — There  are  three  principal  ways  by  which 
the  invisible  germs  are  passed  from  one  person  to 
another;  and  if  you  understand  these  three  ways,  you 
can  do  a  great  deal  to  keep  yourself  and  other  people 
about  you  safe  from  their  attacks. 

First  of  all,  the  microbes  may  be  passed  from  one 
person  to  another  by  direct  contact  or  touching.  Sup- 
pose your  father  has  a  cold  and  you  kiss  him.  You 
will  probably  get  the  cold  germs  on  your  lips,  and  very 
soon  you  may  come  down  with  the  cold,  in  your  turn. 
When  he  coughs  or  sneezes,  a  fine  spray  of  moisture  is 
thrown  out  from  his  mouth,  and  in  these  drops  of  water 
there  will  be  the  germs  which  were  growing  in  his  mouth. 


i66  HEALTHY  LIVING 

If  he  sneezes  behind  his  hand  and  then  touches  your 
hand,  and  your  hand  goes  to  your  mouth  or  nose,  the 
germs  will  be  passed  on  to  you,  in  a  more  roundabout 
way  but  still  by  contact. 

A  second  way  in  which  disease  germs  often  find  their 
way  from  one  person  to  another  is  by  means  of  water 
or  milk  or  some  other  food.  If  a  man  who  is  suffering 
from  some  germ  disease  coughs  over  a  milk  pail,  the 
microbes  from  his  mouth  may  be  mixed  up  with  a 
whole  batch  of  milk  at  the  dairy  and  may  be  carried  to 
hundreds  of  people  as  a  result. 

Finally,  the  germs  of  some  diseases  are  carried  from 
one  person  to  another  by  insects,  such  as  flies  and 
mosquitoes. 

We  sometimes  speak  of  these  three  ways  of  spreading 
disease  as  the  Three  F's — Fingers,  Food,  and  Flies — 
Fingers  meaning  all  the  various  ways  by  which  germs 
pass  from  one  person  to  another  by  contact;  Food,  the 
spread  of  the  germs  by  different  foods;  and  Flies,  the 
carrying  of  disease  microbes  by  flies  and  other  insects. 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Who  was  Daniel  Boone  and  what  did  he  do? 

2.  What  enemies  are  there  in  your  town  against  which  you 
will  have  to  fight?  Are  there  any  men  in  the  community  who 
are  leading  in  this  fight,  as  Boone  and  his  companions  led  in  the 
fight  against  wild  beasts? 

3.  Which  do  you  think  is  more  dangerous:  a  bear  or  a  disease 
germ?    Give  your  reasons. 

4.  What  causes  food  to  spoil?  How  can  the  spoiling  of  food 
be  prevented? 


OUR   UNSEEN   ENEMIES  167 

5.  Who  was  Pasteur  and  what  did  he  do? 

6.  What  are  some  of  the  good  things  that  microbes  do  for  us? 

7.  What  really  happens  when  a  person  "catches  cold"? 

8.  What  are  some  of  the  diseases  caused  by  microbes?    Which 
ones  have  you  had? 

9.  Can  you  catch  a  disease  from  a  person  who  is  not  sick  him- 
self?   Explain. 

10.  In  what  three  general  ways  do  disease  germs  pass  from 
one  person  to  another? 

11.  Does  a  person  who  is  careless  about  catching  diseases 
harm  any  one  besides  himself?    Explain. 


CHAPTER  XV 
CLEANLINESS  AND  HEALTH 

The  Wooden  Horse  of  Troy. — Once  upon  a  time  the 
armies  of  the  Greeks  were  at  war  with  a  people  called 
the  Trojans,  who  lived  in  the  powerful  city  of  Troy. 
For  a  long  while  the  Greeks  camped  outside  the  walls 
of  the  city  and  tried  to  capture  it,  but  the  Trojans 
with  spears  and  arrows  and  great  stones  drove  them 
off  and  killed  some  of  their  bravest  leaders. 

At  last  Ulysses,  one  cf  the  wisest  of  the  Greeks, 
thought  of  a  plan  by  which  to  capture  the  city  through 
a  trick.  The  Greeks  pretended  to  be  giving  up  the 
attack,  and  their  ships  sailed  away  and  hid  behind  an 
island  near  by.  The  Trojans,  thinking  the  war  was 
over,  poured  out  of  the  city  where  they  had  been  shut 
up  and  eagerly  examined  the  deserted  camp  of  the 
Greeks.  In  this  camp  they  found  a  very  strange  thing, 
an  enormous  wooden  horse. 

They  were  curious  about  this  horse,  for  no  one  could 
think  what  it  might  be  for.  Some  wanted  to  bring  it 
into  the  city  as  a  prize;  others  were  afraid  and  advised 
that  it  be  left  on  the  seashore.  At  last  they  were  per- 
suaded that  it  would  be  a  fine  thing  to  have  the  wooden 
horse  in  the  city.  So  they  managed  with  great  difficulty 
to  get  it  inside  the  walls  and  ended  the  day  with  feasts 
and  rejoicing. 

i68 


CLEANLINESS  AND   HEALTH  169 

Now  this  is  what  the  clever  Greeks  had  done.  The 
great  horse  was  hollow,  and  inside  it  were  Greek  soldiers. 
In  the  night  when  the  Trojans  were  all  asleep,  these 
soldiers  came  out  and  opened  the  gates  of  the  city  to 
the  rest  of  the  Greeks,  who  had  sailed  back  and  landed 
again  after  nightfall.  In  this  way  the  mighty  city  of 
Troy  was  at  last  taken. 

What  do  you  suppose  this  story  has  to  do  with 
keeping  well?  Just  this.  The  disease  germs  are  our 
enemies,  just  as  the  Greeks  were  the  enemies  of  the 
people  of  Troy.  We  can  keep  them  out,  just  as  the 
Trojans  could  have  kept  out  the  Greeks ;  but  very  often 
we  do  what  the  Trojans  did.  We  bring  the  enemy  into 
the  city;  we  put  the  germs  of  disease  right  into  our  own 
mouths.  Let  us  see  how  we  can  be  on  our  guard  against 
doing  anything  so  foolish. 

The  Camp  of  the  Enemy. — The  Trojans  knew  that 
the  wooden  horse  had  been  made  by  the  Greeks  and 
left  by  them  in  the  camp,  and  they  ought  to  have  been 
on  the  watch  for  some  danger  from  it.  Where  should 
we  look  for  our  enemies,  the  disease  microbes,  so  that 
we  may  not  let  them  get  into  our  bodies? 

You  learned  in  the  last  chapter  that  these  disease 
microbes  always  come  from  the  bodies  of  other  people. 
In  most  cases,  it  is  the  discharges  from  the  nose  and 
throat  in  which  our  invisible  enemies  lie  hidden.  The 
spray  thrown  out  in  coughing  and  sneezing,  the  matter 
coughed  up,  and  the  material  that  soils  the  handker- 
chief— these  are  the  original  sources  of  infection.  Any 
one  who  has  a  cold  or  any  other  sickness  should  take 


lyo 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


the  greatest  care  to  avoid  spreading  these  discharges. 
People  should  always  cough  or  sneeze  in  a  handkerchief 
and  not  in  some  one  else's  face.  They  should  not  kiss 
other  people  or  shake  hands  with  them  when  suffering 
from  any  germ  disease.    They  should  not  leave  soiled 


Fig.  62. — Faithful  guardians  of  the  pubHc  health. 

handkerchiefs  about  or  handle  unnecessarily  anything 
that  other  people  may  have  to  handle  afterward. 

In  some  diseases,  like  typhoid  fever,  the  germs  are 
in  the  discharges  from  the  bowels  and  bladder,  and  this 
is  the  reason  why  every  one  should  take  the  greatest 
care  to  wash  the  hands  thoroughly  after  using  the  toilet. 

Your  Busy  Fingers. — The  fingers  are  among  the 
busiest  and  most  useful  parts  of  your  body.    Writing, 


CLEANLINESS  AND   HEALTH  171 

sewing,  playing  the  piano,  carrying  things,  and  holding 
things — there  are  few  waking  hours  when  they  are  not 
serving  you.  In  the  course  of  the  day  they  handle 
many  things,  and  many  of  these  things  are  dirty. 
Nearly  everything  you  touch  has  microbes  on  it.  Most 
of  them,  of  course,  are  harmless  germs;  but  often  there 
will  be  other  kinds  that  have  come  from  some  person 
who  was  coming  down  with  a  disease  or  who  was  a 
carrier  of  the  germs  of  disease.  Then  if  you  are  not 
careful,  those  busy  fingers  of  yours  may  play  the  part 
of  the  wooden  horse  and  carry  the  enemy  right  to  your 
mouth,  or  to  the  piece  of  bread  or  the  apple  that  is 
going  into  your  mouth. 

This  is  the  reason  why  older  people  are  right  in  saying 
to  you  so  often,  "Wash  your  hands,  Johnny,"  or  ''Your 
hands  are  dirty,  Susan."  It  is  not  simply  that  they 
are  fussy  about  your  looks,  though  dirty  hands  are  not 
very  pleasant  to  look  at. 

Above  all,  it  is  important  to  wash  those  busy  fingers 
very  carefully  before  handling  food  that  is  to  go  into 
your  mouth.  There  is  no  rule  more  important  than 
the  rule  that  The  hands  should  he  thoroughly  washed 
before  you  eat.  It  does  not  matter  whether  your  hands 
look  clean  or  not.  There  might  be  millions  of  germs 
there,  without  your  being  able  to  see  them.  The  next 
time  that  it  seems  a  bother  to  go  and  w^ash  your  hands 
before  lunch  or  before  eating  an  apple,  remember  the 
Trojan  horse.  Don't  let  the  microbes  play  a  trick  on 
you.  Scrub  them  away  with  warm  water  and  soap. 
Do  a  good  thorough  job  of  it,  and  then  wipe  your  hands 


172  HEALTHY  LIVING 

on  a  clean  toweL  All  the  good  of  the  washing  may  be 
undone  if  you  use  a  towel  that  some  one  else  has  used, 
for  then  a  good  supply  of  his  germs  may  be  rubbed  on 
your  hands,  just  at  the  time  when  you  think  they  have 
been  cleaned. 

The  Mouth  as  the  Gateway  to  the  Body. — Since  it  is 
generally  by  way  of  the  mouth  that  the  germs  of  disease 
find  their  way  into  the  body,  we  ought  to  guard  our 
mouths  just  as  carefully  as  the  Trojans  guarded  the 
gates  of  their  city,  before  they  made  their  great  mis- 
take about  the  wooden  horse. 

There  is  no  more  disagreeable  trick,  and  no  more 
dangerous  trick,  than  .the  habit  many  children  have  of 
picking  at  nose  or  mouth  and  putting  into  the  mouth 
pencils,  pins,  money,  marbles,  and  all  sorts  of  dirty 
things.  Just  think  a  little  what  the  history  of  some  of 
these  things  may  have  been.  The  pencil  was  perhaps 
used  last  by  another  child  who  had  the  same  bad  habit 
of  putting  things  into  his  mouth.  He  may  have  been 
coming  down  with  diphtheria,  and  if  so,  you  will  put 
the  germs  of  diphtheria  right  into  your  own  mouth  if 
you  put  the  pencil  there.  Or  the  penny  may  have  been 
dropped  on  the  street  and  may  have  rolled  through  a 
place  where  the  germs  of  tuberculosis  had  been  dis- 
charged by  a  consumptive  who  had  spit  on  the  side- 
walk. 

You  never  know  when  things  like  this  may  happen. 
It  is  absolutely  impossible  not  to  handle  many  things 
that  are  dirty;  but  you  can  keep  them  from  your  lips. 
The  only  safe  rule  is :  Let  nothing  go  to  your  mouth  except 


CLEANLINESS  AND   HEALTH 


173 


Fig.  63. — Food  in  a  pastry  shop  exposed  to  pollution  from  flies  and 

dust  and  handling. 


Fig.  64. — ^The  same  shop  with  the  food  properly  protected. 


174 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


clean  food  and  your  toothbrush.    Let  nothing  go  to  your 
nose  except  a  clean  handkerchief. 

Clean  Food. — It  is  very  necessary,  of  course,  that  the 
food  which  is  to  go  into  your  mouth  should  itself  be 

clean  and  free  from 
harmful  microbes. 
Food  that  has  been 
handled  by  a  sick 
person  or  a  carrier 
may  easily  pass  the 
disease  germs  on  to 
some  one  else.  Milk 
has  often  spread  dis- 
ease to  hundreds  of 
people  at  a  time;  and 
so  has  water,  in  cases 
where  it  has  been  pol- 
luted by  sewers  empty 
ing  into  the  stream 
or  pond  from  which 
the  water  was  taken. 

A  person  who  is 
feeling  ill  should  never 
handle  food  that  is 
to  be  eaten  by  other 
people;  and  since  one  may  be  a  carrier  without  know- 
ing it,  the  hands  should  always  be  washed  before  pre- 
paring food. 

In  buying  foods,  particularly  fruits  and  other  foods 
that  are  eaten  raw,  it  is  a  good  plan  to  avoid  those  that 


Fig.  65. — The  use  of  a  common  drink- 
ing cup  is  one  of  the  best  ways  to 
pass  germs  from  one  mouth  to 
another. 


CLEANLINESS  AND   HEALTH  175 

are  exposed  in  the  open  street,  or  in  the  store,  to  flies 
and  dust.  Think  where  the  fly  that  walks  over  a  fine 
bunch  of  grapes  may  have  been  walking  last!  In  many 
cities  the  law  requires  that  all  such  foods  must  be  kept 
under  glass  or  covered  in  some  other  way.  The  same 
care  should  be  taken  after  the  foods  have  been  brought 
home,  for  a  fly  in  your  kitchen  may  be  just  as  danger- 
ous as  a  fly  in  the  grocery  store. 

Spoiled  foods  are  likely  to  contain  germs  that  make 
people  ill,  and  so 'it  is  important  that  foods  should  be 
kept  in  a  cool  place  and  not  kept  too  long.  Chopped 
or  minced  food  should  be  watched  carefully,  for  it  is 
particularly  apt  to  decay.  If  any  food  is  the  least  bit 
spoiled,  it  should  be  thrown  away. 

Since  the  most  dangerous  kind  of  dirt  is  the  ma  terial 
from  the  mouth  of  another  person,  a  drinking  glass  or 
cup  that  has  been  used  by  some  one  else  is  always  a 
dirty  thing.  Even  when  it  looks  quite  bright  and  clear, 
you  would  find  a  great  many  microbes  on  the  rim  where 
it  had  touched  the  lips,  if  you  examined  a  little  piece  of 
the  rim  under  the  microscope.  Don't  be  a  foolish 
Trojan  and  put  germs  that  may  be  dangerous  into 
your  mouth,  by  using  a  drinking  cup  that  has  been 
used  by  others.  If  you  have  not  a  glass  of  your  own 
and  there  is  no  bubble  fountain  in  school,  you  can 
learn  to  make  a  very  good  drinking  cup  out  of  paper 
by  folding  it  as  shown  in  Fig.  66. 

Raw  Foods  and  Cooked  Foods. — It  was  a  very  clever 
man  (or  woman)  who  first  invented  cooking.  Cooking 
not  only  makes  the  food  taste  better  and  makes  it  easier 


176 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


to  digest,  but  makes  it  safer  to  eat  and  much  less 
likely  to  carry  the  germs  of  disease.  The  heat  applied 
in  most  methods  of  cooking  will  destroy  any  disease 
germs  which  might  be  present.  If  there  is  any  doubt 
about  the  drinking  water,  it  can  be  made  quite  safe 
by  boiling  it. 

Raw  milk  has  probably  caused  more  cases  of  disease 
than  any  other  food  (except  water),  for  it  may  carry 


A  Piece  o/^ Paper 
7  Inches  SQuare 


Fofc/  A  on  B 
a  I  on  a  t fie  line 


Fo/d  D  onF 

on  the  Line 

4  -    C 


Fold  C  on  EoverD. 
Fig.  66. 


Insert  A  in 
Pouble  Foido/  C 


Fold  B  Back  and 
Open  alon^  the  line  F  F 


-How  to  make  a  paper  drinking  cup. 


disease  germs  not  only  from  milkers  and  people  at  the 
dairy  but  also  from  the  cow  itself,  since  cows  often 
suffer  from  tuberculosis.  The  way  to  make  milk  ab- 
solutely safe  is  to  pasteurize  it.  This  word,  as  you 
would  guess,  comes  from  the  name  of  Pasteur.  Pas- 
teurizing milk  means  that  it  is  heated  to  a  temperature 
a  little  below  boiling  and  kept  hot  for  about  half  an 
hour.    If  this  is  done  carefully,  any  disease  germs  will 


CLEANLINESS  AND   HEALTH  177 

surely  be  killed,  without  harming  the  taste  of  the  milk. 
In  most  cities  you  can  buy  good  pasteurized  milk;  but 
where  you  cannot,  the  milk  can  easily  be  made  safe  at 
home.  The  bottle  of  milk  should  be  set  in  a  deep 
pan  of  water,  and  the  water  should  be  heated  just  to 
boiling.  Then  let  the  pan  stand  for  half  an  hour, 
after  which  the  milk  should  be  taken  out  and  quickly 
cooled. 

Not  all  the  foods  we  eat  can  be  made  safe  by  cooking. 
In  fact,  it  is  quite  necessary  for  our  health  that  we 
should  eat  some  raw  foods,  since  cooking  destroys  cer- 
tain food  substances  the  body  needs.  Raw  foods — 
lettuce,  celery,  apples,  pears,  and  the  like — should  be 
carefully  washed  before  eating. 

■  The  Care  of  Cuts  and  Wounds. — The  Greeks  might 
have  entered  Troy,  not  through  the  gateway,  but 
through  a  hole  in  the  wall,  if  they  could  have  found  one. 
Just  so,  harmful  microbes  may  get  into  our  bodies 
through  a  cut  or  a  wound  anywhere  on  the  surface  of 
the  body.  The  skin  is  like  a  wall  which  keeps  the 
microbes  out;  but  if  it  is  broken,  there  is  always  likely 
to  be  trouble.  When  you  cut  yourself  in  any  way,  the 
place  should  be  washed  with  clean  warm  water  and 
then  protected  from  dirt  by  a  clean  gauze  bandage. 
If  the  cut  is  a  bad  one,  it  should  be  dressed  as  quickly 
as  possible  by  a  doctor ;  but  if  it  is  a  little  one  and  your 
mother  has  taken  a  Red  Cross  course,  perhaps  she  can 
put  a  little  iodine  on  and  then  dress  it  herself.  In  any 
case,  the  place  should  be  watched  carefully.  If  it  be- 
comes painful  and  red  and  angry,  it  means  that  danger- 


lyS  HEALTHY  LIVING 

ous  germs  are  growing  there,  and  the  doctor  should  be 
consulted  immediately. 

Of  course,  you  children  who  have  been  learning 
about  microbes  would  never  think  of  picking  at  a  cut 
or  a  scab  of  any  kind,  because  you  will  understand  how 
easily  such  picking  may  infect  the  wound  with  just 
the  kind  of  germs  you  want  to  keep  out. 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Tell  the  story  of  the  way  in  which  the  Greeks  took  the  city 
of  Troy. 

2.  Explain  what  the  wooden  horse  of  Troy  has  to  do  with  the 
spread  of  the  germs  of  disease. 

3.  Describe  some  of  the  ways  in  which  disease  germs  are 
carried  from  one  person  to  another. 

4.  Think  of  all  the  things  you  have  touched  with  your  fingers 
since  you  last  washed  your  hands.  Could  any  of  them  have  been 
soiled  with  material  containing  the  germs  of  disease? 

5.  How  often  should  you  wash  your  hands?    Why? 

6.  George  did  not  want  to  wash  his  hands  before  lunch  be- 
cause they  looked  perfectly  clean.    Explain  why  he  was  wrong. 

7.  What  are  some  of  the  things  we  should  be  careful  about, 
in  buying  and  keeping  foods? 

8.  How  can  milk  be  pasteurized?  What  does  pasteurization 
do  to  the  milk? 

9.  Susan  was  constantly  borrowing  pencils  and  other  things 
from  the  children  near  her  in  school,  and  she  had  the  bad  habit 
of  putting  everything  she  handled  into  her  mouth.  Her  teacher 
said,  ''That  child  is  a  danger  to  every  other  child  in  the  room." 
What  did  she  mean? 

10.  What  should  be  done  when  you  cut  your  finger?    Why? 


CHAPTER  XVI 
SOME  UNDESIRABLE  NEIGHBORS 

The  Fly  Family. — When  the  flies  buzz  about  on  the 
window  pane  and  tickle  your  face  in  the  early  morning 
and  bother  you  at  mealtimes  by  running  over  the  sugar 
and  getting  into  the  jug  of  cream,  did  you  ever  wonder 
where  they  come  from?  They  are  neighbors  of  ours  and 
often  uninvited  guests  in  our  houses  and  at  our  tables. 
We  ought  to  know  a  little  about  their  habits,  so  that 
we  may  find  out  whether  they  should  be  welcome 
guests  or  not. 

Mother  Fly  has  quite  a  large  family,  a  hundred  or 
more  children  at  a  time.  She  lays  her  eggs — tiny  white 
eggs  so  small  that  you  can  just  barely  see  them — in 
horse  manure  about  stables  if  she  can  find  it,  or  in 
almost  any  kind  of  decaying  material.  Then  she  flies 
away.  In  about  a  day  the  eggs  break  open,  and  out 
of  each  one  comes — what  do  you  suppose — a  little  fly? 
Not  at  all.  There  comes  out  of  each  egg  a  tiny  white 
worm  (just  as  there  comes  from  the  tgg  laid  by  a  butter- 
fly, not  a  butterfly  but  a  caterpillar). 

The  fly  maggot  or  larva,^  as  the  little  worm  is  called, 
crawls  about  in  the  manure  and  feeds  upon  it.  It 
grows  and  thrives  on  this  unpleasant  food,  till  after 
four  or  five  days  it  is  about  three-eighths  of  an  inch  long. 

*  A  single  maggot  is  called  a  larva,  more  than  one,  larvcs  (larVe). 
Pupais  pronounced  pu'pa;  a-udpupce,  meaning  more  than  one,  is  pu'pe. 

179 


i8o 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


Then  it  burrows  down  into  the  ground  underneath,  or 
out  into  the  dry  edges  of  the  manure  pile,  and  there  its 


Fig.  67. — ^The  giant  model  of  a  fly  in  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  New  York.  The 
artist  who  made  the  model  is  putting  the 
finishing  touches  to  his  work. 

skin  spHts  open  and  uncovers  a  little  brown  thing  like  a 
seed,  which  is  called  a  pupa.^  In  just  the  same  way,  as 
perhaps  you  may  have  seen,  a  caterpillar  (which  is  the 
larva  of  a  butterfly)  changes  into  a  pupa. 

^See  Note  on  page  179. 


SOME  UNDESIRABLE  NEIGHBORS  i8i 

Inside  the  pupa  case,  the  young  fly  sleeps  for  four 
or  five  days  more.  At  last  the  brown  pupa  skin  splits, 
just  as  the  skin  of  the  larva  did,  and  there  comes  out 
a  full  grown  fly,  just  like  its  mother.  It  wriggles  up  to 
the  air  and  soon  flies  away,  to  seek  out  your  sugar  bowl 
or  cream  pitcher  and  have  a  meal. 

Is  the  Fly  a  Good  Neighbor? — Now  that  you  know 
the  history  of  the  Fly  children,  I  think  you  can  make 
up  your  mind  for  yourself  whether  they  are  desirable 
guests  at  the  dinner  table  or  not. 

A  fly's  feet  seem  quite  dainty  and  small.  If  you 
looked  at  them  under  a  microscope,  however,  you  would 
see  that  they  have  claws  and  soft  sticky  pads  on  the 
end  (by  the  use  of  which  the  fly  can  walk  on  the  wall 
or  ceiling  just  as  easily  as  on  the  floor).  On  these  claws 
and  pads  there  is  plenty  of  room  for  microbes.  It  has 
been  found,  by  the  men  and  women  who  study  germs, 
that  thousands  of  microbes  are  actually  carried  by  these 
tiny  feet  from  the  filthy  places  where  flies  live.  It  is  not 
pleasant  to  think  that  even  one  fly  has  been  tracking 
his  dirty  feet  over  our  food.  Worst  of  all,  however,  is  the 
fact  that  every  now  and  then  the  fly  has  been  walking 
where  there  were  germs  of  some  special  disease  like 
typhoid  fever;  and  if  these  germs  are  carried  to  the 
food,  an  outbreak  of  disease  is  very  likely  to  result. 

Little  babies  often  suffer  in  summer  from  diseases  of 
the  intestines.  Studies  made  in  New  York  City  showed 
that  half  of  this  kind  of  sickness  could  be  prevented  by 
keeping  flies  out  of  the  baby's  room  and  away  from  its 
food. 


l82 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


Fighting  the  Fly. — From  these  facts  you  will  realize 
that  in  every  town  and  every  school  and  every  house- 
hold there  must  be  a 
vigorous  fight  made 
against  the  Fly  Family. 

Sometimes  people 
who  want  to  get  rid 
of  flies  try  to  do  it  by 
killing  them  by  hand. 


Fig.  68. — If  you  think  where  the  fly 
may  have  been  last,  you  will  want  to 
keep  him  away  from  the  dinner  table. 

We  hear  now 
and  then  about 
a  "Swat-the- 
^  Fly"  campaign. 
Fly  killers  are 
often  useful  to 
get  rid  of  the 
flies  that  are  actually  in  our  houses,  though  sticky  fly. 
paper  is  generally  more  effective.  But  we  can  never 
destroy  all  the  flies  indoors  if  they  are  coming  in  freely 
from  the  outside.  So  doors  and  windows  should  all 
have  tightly  fitting  screens  in  summer;  and  remember 
that  a  screen  door  is  not  very  useful  if  it  is  held  open 
while  a  child  stands  on  the  step  and  talks  to  some  one 
outside — as  I  have  seen  some  children  do. 


SOME   UNDESIRABLE  NEIGHBORS  183 

A  great  many  flies  can  be  caught  in  traps.  A  fly  trap 
is  usually  a  cage  of  wire  netting,  which  has  inside  a 
cone  of  wire,  with  a  large  opening  at  the  bottom  and 
a  small  opening  at  the  top.  Underneath  the  lower 
opening  of  the  cone  is  placed  a  bait  of  some  food  that 
flies  like.  The  flies  which  come  to  feed  on  this  bait  will 
fly  and  crawl  up  through  the  cone  into  the  cage.  Once 
inside,  they  do  not  know  enough  to  find  the  hole  and 
get  out  again. 

The  best  way  of  all  to  fight  against  the  Fly  Family 
is  to  prevent  the  fly  babies  from  growing  up  at  all  in 
the  neighborhood  of  our  houses.  If  stable  manure  is 
kept  in  tight  covered  bins,  and  if  refuse  of  all  kinds  is 
cleared  away  from  back  yards  and  open  lots,  there  will 
be  no  places  for  flies  to  breed. 

Mrs.  Mosquito  and  Her  Habits. — There  is  another 
summer  neighbor  of  ours  whom  we  ought  to  know 
something  about,  and  that  is  Mrs.  Mosquito,  who  buzzes 
about  our  beds  at  night  and  gives  us  the  bites  that  itch 
and  sometimes  smart  so  painfully. 

Mrs.  Mosquito  is  much  more  cleanly  in  her  habits 
than  Mrs.  Fly.  When  she  starts  her  family  off  in  life, 
she  seeks,  not  a  manure  pile,  but  a  pool  of  stagnant 
water,  or  a  slowly  running  stream  half  choked  up  with 
weeds,  or  perhaps  an  old  rain  barrel,  or  even  a  tin  can 
in  the  back  yard  in  which  a  little  rain  water  has  col- 
lected. She  lays  her  eggs  on  the  surface  of  the  water ^ 
for  her  babies  live  in  water,  as  Mrs.  Fly's  children  live 
in  decaying  matter.  The  larvae  which  hatch  out  from 
Mrs.  Mosquito's  eggs  are  little  brownish  creatures  with 


i84  HEALTHY  LIVING 

tufts  of  hair  on  their  bodies.  They  are  often  called 
"wigglers,"  because  of  the  way  they  swim  about  in  the 
water  by  jerking  their  bodies  from  side  to  side. 

After  a  week  or  so  these  larvae,  like  those  of  the  fly, 
change  to  pupae.  The  mosquito  pupae  are  not  motion- 
less like  the  fly  pupae.  They  can  still  jerk  themselves 
about  in  the  water.  They  do  not  eat,  however,  but 
rest  quietly  at  the  surface,  unless  they  are  disturbed. 
After  a  few  days  they  change  again.  The  pupa  skin 
splits  up  the  back  and  the  grown-up  winged  mosquito 
comes  out.  For  a  few  minutes  it  stands  on  the  old  pupa 
skin  to  dry  its  wings  and  then  it  flies  away. 

Why  Mosquitoes  are  Dangerous. — ^W^e  all  know  that 
mosquitoes  are  a  nuisance  because  they  sting  us  and 
keep  us  awake  at  night.  You  might  not  think  they 
would  do  any  harm,  however,  since  they  breed  in  pools 
and  streams  instead  of  in  dirty  places  as  the  flies  do. 
Yet  some  kinds  of  mosquitoes  are  even  more  dangerous 
than  flies  in  spreading  the  germs  of  disease. 

In  many  parts  of  the  United  States,  and  in  most  of 
the  warmer  countries  of  the  world,  a  disease  called 
malaria  is  common.  The  germ  which  causes  this  dis- 
ease lives  in  the  blood  and  attacks  the  red  cells,  which 
carry  oxygen  to  the  different  organs.  This  germ  is 
carried  from  one  person  to  another  by  a  mosquito.  The 
insect  bites  a  person  who  has  the  malaria  germ  in  his 
blood.  In  sucking  out  the  blood,  the  mosquito  sucks 
out  also  some  of  the  malaria  germs.  Then  it  bites  a 
second  person  and  introduces  the  germ  into  his  blood, 
giving  him  the  disease  in  turn. 


SOME   UNDESIRABLE   NEIGHBORS 


Long  ago  it  was  noticed  that  malaria  was  generally 
found  in  the  low  lands  near  streams  and  swamps,  and 
people  thought  there  was  something  mysterious  in  the 
air  of  such  places  that  caused  the  disease.  Now  we 
know  that  what  made  the  air  unhealthful  was  simply 
the  mosquitoes  which  were  flying  in  it;  and  the 
reason  why  mala- 
ria occurred  near 
swamps  was  be- 
cause there  was 
stagnant  water 
there  in  which 
mosquitoes  could 
breed. 

Only  certain 
kinds  of  mosqui- 
toes can  carry 
malaria  in  this 
way;  and  you  can 
easily  tell  the  dif- 
ference between  the  malarial  mosquitoes  and  the  ordi- 
nary kinds.  The  wings  of  the  malarial  mosquitoes  are 
spotted,  while  the  wings  of  the  commoner  kinds  are  not. 
The  position  of  the  malarial  mosquitoes,  when  resting 
on  the  wall,  is  different,  too.  They  hold  their  bodies 
out  in  a  straight  line  from  the  wall,  while  the  common 
mosquitoes  sit  in  a  sort  of  hump-backed  position,  as 
you  can  see  by  looking  at  Fig.  69. 

Even  the  larvae  of  these  two  sorts  of  mosquitoes  can 
quite  easily  be  distinguished.    The  larvae  of  the  malarial 


Fig.  69. — Resting  position  of  the  common 
mosquito  (right)  and  the  malarial 
mosquito  (left). 


i86  HEALTHY  LIVING 

mosquito,  when  they  are  at  rest  in  the  water,  he  flat 
against  the  surface,  while  the  larvae  of  the  common 
mosquito  hang  at  an  angle  with  the  surface,  their  tails 
only  touching  it. 

How  to  Get  Rid  of  Mosquitoes. — Screens  will  help 
to  keep  mosquitoes,  as  well  as  flies,  out  of  our  houses. 
But  with  mosquitoes,  as  with  flies,  the  best  thing  to 
do  is  to  prevent  the  insects  from  breeding  at  all.  We 
can  do  this  by  draining  the  marshlands,  by  digging 
ditches  through  which  the  water  can  flow  out  instead 
of  standing  in  little  pools.  We  can  clear  small  streams 
of  weeds  and  grass  so  that  the  water  will  run  rapidly, 
for  Mrs.  Mosquito  will  not  lay  her  eggs  in  water  that 
is  flowing  fast.  We  can  empty  our  old  barrels  and  tin 
cans  and  all  such  collections  of  water,  so  that  there 
may  be  no  place  where  the  little  wigglers  can  live. 

Sometimes  when  it  is  not  possible  to  drain  away 
marshy  pools  in  which  mosquitoes  might  breed,  oil  is 
sprayed  over  the  pools.  As  oil  is  lighter  than  water,  it 
spreads  out  in  a  ver}^  thin  layer  over  the  top  and  kills 
the  mosquito  larvae.  The  breeding  of  mosquitoes  may 
often  be  stopped  by  putting  fish  into  a  pond,  for  many 
kinds  of  fish  wiU  eat  up  mosquito  wigglers  (see  Fig.  70). 

How  America  Built  the  Panama  Canal. — One  of  the 
great  things  our  country  has  done,  of  which  all  Ameri- 
cans are  proud,  is  the  building  of  the  Panama  Canal. 
You  have  probably  learned  in  your  geography  about 
this  famous  canal,  which  cuts  through  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  between  North  and  South  America  and  makes 
it  possible  for  ships  to  pass  directly  from  the  Atlantic 


SOME  UNDESIRABLE  NEIGHBORS  187 

into  the  Pacific,  without  going  all  the  way  around 
Cape  Horn,  as  they  used  to  do. 

Long  ago  the  French  tried  to  build  a  canal  across 
this  isthmus.  One  of  the  chief  reasons  why  they  did  not 
succeed  was  that  their  workmen  fell  sick  of  malaria  and 
other  diseases,  and  particularly  of  one  very  terrible 


Fig.  70. — Goldfish  eating  mosquito  wigglers.     These  two  fish  de- 
stroyed 98  wigglers  in  four  minutes. 

disease  called  yellow  fever.  No  one  knew  at  that  time 
what  caused  either  malaria  or  yellow  fever,  and  there 
was  therefore  no  way  to  protect  the  people  who  tried  to 
live  and  work  in  warm  countries,  where  these  diseases 
prevailed. 

At  last  it  was  found  out  that  malaria,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  spread  by  the  bite  of  a  certain  mosquito.  A  group 
of  American  army  doctors,  headed  by  Walter  Reed, 


i88  HEALTHY  LIVING 

then  went  to  Cuba,  where  yellow  fever  was  common, 
to  try  to  learn  how  to  control  it.  They  soon  proved 
that  yellow  fever,  too,  is  spread  by  a  mosquito,  but  by 
a  different  kind  from  the  one  that  carries  malaria. 

That  sounds  very  simple,  perhaps;  but  it  was  not  at 
all  an  easy  thing  to  prove.  The  doctors  suspected  that 
a  special  kind  of  mosquito  carried  the  germ  of  yellow 
fever.  It  was  necessary  to  let  these  special  mosquitoes 
first  bite  people  sick  with  yellow  fever,  and  then  bite 
other  well  people,  and  see  whether  these  well  people 
would  become  ill.  It  was  a  brave  thing  to  do,  to  take 
an  almost  certain  risk  of  getting  such  a  disease — as 
brave  as  anything  our  soldiers  have  done  in  the  trenches 
in  France.  The  men  who  were  bitten  by  the  mos- 
quitoes which  carried  the  germ  developed  yellow  fever, 
,^ndfone..of  them,  Jesse  W.  Lazear,  died  of  it.  By 
.their  heroism,  they  showed  the  world  how  yellow  fever 
was  really  caused,  and  therefore  how  it  could  be  con- 
:^  trolled. 

■  It  was  soon  after  this  that  the  United  States  began 
its  attempt  to  build  the  Panama  Canal.  In  view  of  the 
discoveries  made  in  Cuba,  it  was  clear  that  it  was 
the  presence  of  mosquitoes  which  made  Panama 
such  a  dangerous  place.  So  Dr.  W.  C.  Gorgas  (who 
later  became  the  head  of  the  Medical  Corps  of  the 
whole  United  States  Army)  was  sent  to  Panama  and 
placed  in  charge  of  a  campaign  against  these  insects. 
He  was  so  successful  that  he  wiped  out  yellow  fever 
on  the  Isthmus,  and  nearly  abolished  malaria  as  well. 
The  great  canal  was  built;  and  one  of  the  chief  things 


SOME   UNDESIRABLE   NEIGHBORS 


189 


that  made  it  possible  to  build  it  was  the  knowledge  of 
how  to  control  yellow  fever  and  malaria. 

Other  Insect  Bearers  of  Disease. — There  are  many 
other  insects  which  may  spread  the  germs  of  dis- 
ease, particularly  in 
the  warm  countries  of 
the  Tropics.  In  the 
trenches  and  in  over- 
crowded army  camps, 
there  are  sometimes 
diseases  caused  by  lice 
— diseases  which  used 
to  be  very  common 
everywhere  in  old 
times,  when  people 
did  not  keep  as  clean 
as  they  do  nowa- 
days. It  is  important 
that  the  greatest  care 
should  be  taken  al- 
ways to  keep  the  head 
and  body  and  clothes  ^'^-  7i.-WiUiam  Crawford  Gorgas, 
1  fli   f     fV,  conqueror   of   yellow    fever    and 

'  malaria  at  Panama;  Surgeon  Gen- 

dangerous  insects  may  eral  of  the  United  States  army. 

not  find  a  chance  to  develop. 

How  Children  can  Help  to  Fight  the  Mosquito  and 
the  Fly. — Children  can  do  many  things  to  help  in  the 
fight  against  the  mosquito  and  the  fly.  Every  good 
citizen  is  anxious  to  rid  his  neighborhood  of  these  pests, 
but  older  people  are  often  too  busy  to  hunt  about  and 


I  go  HEALTHY  LIVING 

find  out  where  their  breeding  places  are.  Boys  and 
girls,  with  a  little  help  from  their  teacher  or  some  other 
older  person,  can  soon  learn  to  recognize  fly  maggots 
and  mosquito  wigglers.  Then  they  can  organize  scout- 
ing parties  to  find  the  manure  piles  and  rubbish  heaps 
where  the  flies  are  developing,  and  the  pools  and  rain  bar- 
rels and  other  places  from  which  the  mosquitoes  come. 

If  Boy  Scouts  or  other  groups  of  children  will  hunt 
out  the  insect  pests  in  this  way  and  report  to  their 
scoutmaster  or  parents  or  teachers  where  the  trouble 
lies,  the  breeding  places  can  often  be  done  away  with 
and  the  whole  neighborhood  made  pleasanter  and  safer 
to  live  in. 

An  Evening  Talk. — One  evening  in  midsummer 
Mrs.  Mosquito  was  sitting  on  the  wall  of  the  barn, 
just  under  the  eaves  where  it  is  warm  and  pleasant. 
All  at  once  there  was  a  great  buzzing,  and  Mrs.  Fly 
came  flying  along  and  settled  down  beside  her,  very 
much  hurried  and  out  of  breath. 

"Good  evening,  my  dear.  You  seem  a  little  flus- 
tered," she  said  to  the  newcomer  politely,  "Is  any- 
thing the  matter?" 

"Everything  is  the  matter,  indeed,"  replied  Mrs.  Fly 
in  a  tone  of  bitter  disgust.  "I  have  just  been  chased 
out  of  the  house  by  a  little  girl  with  a  fly-killer.  I  don't 
mind  that  so  much,  because  she  never  could  get  near 
me.  I  took  care  of  that.  But  inside  the  house  every 
single  bit  of  food  was  covered  so  that  I  could  get  nothing 
to  eat.  The  lid  was  on  the  sugar  bowl  and  a  napkin 
over  the  top  of  the  cream  pitcher." 


SOME   UNDESIRABLE  NEIGHBORS 


191 


"It's  too  bad,"  Mrs. 
Mosquito  answered 
feelingly.  "  I  have  had 
a  hard  time,  too.  I 
have  been  looking  all 
day  for  a  good  place 
to  lay  my  eggs  so  that 
my  babies  could  grow 
up  happily,  and  if  you 
will  believe  it,  I  could 
not  find  a  single  one. 
The  swamp  behind  the  j^.  ,^     ,.,        ,,,     ,^ 

^  Fig.  72. — Mrs.  Fly  and  Mrs.  Mosquito 

barn  has  been  drained,  decide  that  CleanviUe  is  no  place 

and   there   is  a  tight        for  them. 
cover  on  the  rain  barrel,  and  these  wretched  Boy  Scouts 
have  even  taken  away  the  old  tins  by  the  fence  at  the 
end  of  the  orchard,  which  used  to  be  full  of  water  after 
every  rain.     Life  is  very  difficult  nowadays." 

"Yes,  and  it's  all  the  fault  of  those  same  Boy  Scouts," 
broke  in  her  friend,  still  bursting  with  indignation. 
"They  found  some  of  my  brothers  and  sisters  feeding 

quietly  and  peaceably 
in  the  manure  pile. 
They  told  their  father 
about  it,  and  now  he 
keeps  the  manure  in 
a  tight  bin.  And 
they  have  cleaned  up 
the  rubbish  pile  at 
the  end  of  the  gar- 


192  HEALTHY  LIVING 

den.  Mrs.  Mosquito,  this  is  no  place  for  a  poor 
insect  to  get  a  living  any  longer.  Let  us  move  to 
the  next  town  and  see  if  things  are  not  better 
there." 

^'I  believe  you  are  right,"  said  Mrs.  Mosquito.  "I 
believe  you  are  right.  Clean ville  has  no  attraction  for 
insects  any  longer.  We  will  leave  it  to  the  human 
beings,  and  we  will  carry  our  malaria  and  typhoid  germs 
to  some  other  place,  where  the  people  are  kinder  and 
more  hospitable." 

So  they  flew  off  together  through  the  twilight;  but 
everybody  else  in  Clean  ville  said  that  the  Boy  Scouts 
had  been  doing  a  good  summer's  work. 


Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  What  stages  does  the  fly  pass  through  before  it  becomes 
full-grown? 

2.  What  harm  may  a  fly  do  by  walking  over  a  slice  of  bread 
on  the  table? 

3.  In  some  neighborhoods  there  are  always  a  great  many  flies 
in  summer,  and  in  others  there  are  scarcely  any.  What  do  you 
suppose  is  the  reason  for  this? 

4.  How  does  a  fly  trap  work?  ,^ 

5.  Why  does  malaria  occur  in  swampy  regions? 

6.  Through  what  stages  does  a  mosquito  pass  before  it  be- 
comes full-grown? 

7.  How  can  you  tell  a  malarial  mosquito  larva  from  the  com- 
mon kind?  How  can  you  tell  a  full-grown  malarial  mosquito 
from  the  common  kind? 

8.  When  are  mosquitoes  likely  to  be  most  common:  in  a  rainy 
summer  or  a  dry  one?    Why? 


SOME   UNDESIRABLE  NEIGHBORS  193 

9.  Give  one  reason  why  America  succeeded  in  building  the 
Panama  Canal  while  the  French  failed. 

10.  Who  discovered  how  yellow  fever  is  caused?    How  was 
this  discovery  made? 

11.  How  can  you  help  next  summer  in  fighting  against  insect- 
borne  disease? 


CHAPTER  XVII 
STOPPING  THE  SPREAD  OF  GERM  DISEASE 

Button,  Button,  Who's  Got  the  Button? — ^You  must 
sometimes  have  played  the  game  in  which  a  button  is 
passed  about  a  circle  of  children  from  one  hand  to 
another,  while  a  child  in  the  center  tries  to  guess  where 
the  button  is. 

The  spread  of  germ  diseases  in  a  family,  or  in  a  school, 
or  in  a  city,  is  somewhat  like  this  game.  A  person  who  is 
coming  down  with  the  disease,  or  is  a  carrier,  brings  in 
the  germs  and  passes  them  on  to  some  one  else,  and  so 
it  goes  on  from  one  to  another.  Only  there  is  this  dif- 
ference. You  can  pass  the  button  to  only  one  person 
at  a  time.  The  disease  germs,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
constantly  growing  and  increasing  in  numbers,  so  that 
they  may  spread  from  one  person  to  half  a  dozen  others, 
and  from  each  of  these  to  half  a  dozen  more. 

If  the  first  boy  who  had  the  button  put  it  into  his 
pocket  and  kept  it  there,  instead  of  handing  it  to  any 
one,  there  would  be  an  end  of  the  game.  In  the  same 
way,  if  the  first  child  who  is  coming  down  with  a  dis- 
ease were  prevented  from  passing  his  germs  on  to  some 
one  else,  there  would  be  no  more  of  that  special  kind  of 
sickness  among  his  friends  and  schoolmates.  This  is 
just  what  the  Board  of  Health  is  always  trying  to 

do:  to  find  cases  of  germ  disease  and  take  care  of 

194 


GERM   DISEASE  195 

them  so  that  the  germs  may  not  spread  to  someone 
else. 

How  to  Prevent  the  Spread  of  Disease  Germs. — In 

unusual  or  very  deadly  diseases,  like  smallpox  and 
plague,  the  sick  person  is  taken  to  a  special  hospital, 
where  he  can  be  cared  for  without  danger.  .  In  most 
diseases,  however,  it  is  proper  for  the  person  to  stay 
at  home,  if  he  can  be  kept  in  a  separate  room  where  no 
one  goes,  except  his  mother  or  nurse  or  whoever  takes 
care  of  him. 

Everything  that  comes  out  of  this  room  which  may 
contain  the  germs  of  the  disease,  such  as  bedclothes, 
handkerchiefs,  forks  and  spoons,  glasses  and  cups, 
should  be  boiled  in  water  to  kill  the  germs.  The  per- 
son in  charge  of  the  sick  room  should  take  the  greatest 
care  always  to  wash  her  hands  thoroughly  with  warm 
water  and  soap,  or  with  a  special  solution  provided 
by  the  doctor  to  kill  microbes.  Otherwise,  she  may 
easily  carry  the  germs  on  her  hands  to  the  rest  of  the 
family. 

A  child  may  often  have  diseases  like  whooping  cough 
or  an  ordinary  cold  in  the  head,  without  being  sick 
enough  to  be  in  bed  or  even  shut  up  in  the  house.  In 
such  a  case,  the  child  himself  is  the  one  who  must  try 
to  protect  other  people,  by  taking  care  that  the  dis- 
charges from  the  nose  and  throat  are  not  passed  along 
to  others. 

Wherever  a  case  of  a  germ  disease  occurs,  the  Board 
of  Health  puts  up  a  placard  at  the  door  of  the  house 
or  of  the  apartment,  to  warn  people   that   there  is 


196  HEALTHY  LIVING 

danger  inside;  and  every  one  should  of  course  keep 
away  from  a  house  where  such  a  placard  has  been 
posted. 

Danger  Signals. — Most  germ,  diseases  are  particularly 
^'catching"  just  at  the  beginning,  before  the  child  or 
older  person  feels  sick  enough  to  go  to  bed  and  send 
for  the  doctor.  We  ought  to  be  on  the  watch  for  the 
early  sighs  of  such  diseases,  either  in  ourselves  or  in 
other  people,  just  as  the  players  in  the  button  game 
watch  each  other  to  see  the  conscious  look  on  the  face 
of  the  one  who  has  the  button  in  his  hand. 

Here  are  some  of  the  signs  of  the  beginning  of  an 
attack  of  a  germ  disease: 

Coughing  Watery  eyes 

Sneezing  Headache 

Running  nose  Rash  or  spots  on  the  skin 

Sore  throat  Weak,  tired  feeling 

Hot,  feverish  feeling  Vomiting 

On  a  railroad  track  the  train  men  sometimes  hold  out 
a  red  flag,  or  at  night  a  red  lantern,  to  warn  a  coming 
train  that  the  track  is  not  clear  and  that  the  train  must 
stop.  Any  one  of  the  things  in  the  list  above  is  a  warn- 
ing sign  that  something  is  wrong,  like  the  red  flag  held 
out  to  stop  the  train. 

These  signs  generally  mean  a  cold  in  the  head  or  a 
sore  throat  which  will  probably  be  over  in  a  few  days. 
They  may,  however,  mean  something  more  serious, 
like  measles  or  scarlet  fever.  So  we  should  keep  away, 
as  much  as  possible,  from  any  one  who  shows  any  of 
these  signs  of  sickness. 


GERM  DISEASE 


197 


Watching  People 
Who  have  been  Ex- 
posed to  Germ  Dis- 
eases.— Particular  care 
should  be  taken  to 
watch  people  who  have 
been  exposed  to  a  germ 
disease — people,  that 
is,  who  have  been  near 
a  sick  person  and  are 
therefore  very  likely  to 
have  taken  the  germs 
into  their  bodies. 

When  you  catch  a 
disease,  like  measles, 
from  some  one  else, 
you  do  not  come  down 
with  it  right  away. 
For  a  few  days  or  per- 
haps a  week  or  so, 
nothing  happens  at  all, 
as  far  as  any  one  can 
see;  and  then  at  last 
the  coughing  or  the 
sneezing   or   the   run- 


Fig.  73. — The  Board  of  Health  has 
placards  posted  to  warn  every- 
one away  from  a  house  or  an 
apartment  where  there  is  a  dan- 
gerous case  of  communicable 
disease. 


ning  nose  or  the  fever 
begins.     All  the  time  something  was  really  going  on; 
the  germs  were  growing  and  multiplying  in  your  body 
until  there  were  enough  to  make  you  feel  really  sick. 
The  doctors  know  how  long  it  takes  for  the  germs  of 


198  HEALTHY  LIVING 

each  disease  to  develop  in  the  body  in  this  way.  In 
many  cases  the  Board  of  Heahh  makes  children  who 
have  been  exposed  to.  a  germ  disease  stay  out  of  school 
and  away  from  other  children,  until  this  time  is  over 
and  it  is  certain  that  they  are  not  coming  down  with 
the  disease  themselves. 

Keeping  Disease  Germs  out  of  the  Schoolroom. — 
Many  of  the  commoner  germ  diseases  are  particularly 
likely  to  affect  children,  and  so  it  is  very  important  to 
keep  such  germs  out  of  the  schoolroom,  where  they 
may  do  so  much  harm.  The  simplest  way  to  do  this  is 
to  watch  carefully  for  children  who  are  coming  down 
with  some  sickness  and  to  send  them  home. 

In  most  cities  there  are  school  doctors  and  school 
nurses  who  are  always  on  the  look-out  for  such  signs  of 
disease.  It  is  their  duty  to  examine  any  children  whom 
the  teacher  may  think  are  not  wxU,  to  see  if  they  have 
a  germ  disease  and  if  they  should  be  kept  out  of  school 
until  they  are  no  longer  dangerous  to  others. 

Your  Own  Responsibility  about  Germ  Diseases. — 
You  children  who  are  studying  this  book  are  old  enough 
to  know  what  responsibility  means.  I  am  sure  you  all 
try  not  to  do  anything  that  may  hurt  any  one  else 
needlessly.  Now  all  of  us,  children  and  grown  people 
alike,  have  a  responsibility  about  the  spread  of  germ 
diseases. 

You  can  never  tell  how  much  harm  may  come  from 
the  passing  on  of  the  germs  of  disease  from  one  person 
to  another.  What  is  only  a  little  cold  in  the  head  in  one 
may  prove  very  serious  in  another.    So  if  you  have  any 


GERM   DISEASE  199 

of  the  signs  of  the  germ  diseases  mentioned  on  page  196, 
you  ought  to  take  the  greatest  care  not  to  expose  other 
people  to  any  danger.  That  means  that  you  ought  not 
to  go  to  school  (unless  the  school  doctor  says  it  is  all 
right  to  do  so)  or  play  with  other  children.  In  your  own 
family,  you  ought  to  take  pains  not  to  cough  or  sneeze 
in  other  people's  faces,  not  to  kiss  or  fondle  other  people, 
and  not  to  touch  food  they  are  to  eat  or  things  they 
are  likely  to  handle. 

Above  all,  if  you  are  ill,  you  should  take  the  greatest 
care  not  to  play  with  babies  or  very  young  children  or  to 
go  anywhere  near  them.  Germ  diseases  are  much  more 
serious  for  babies  than  for  older  people.  ''A  little  cold 
in  a  big  person  may  be  a  big  cold  in  a  little  person," 
some  one  has  said;  and  it  is  a  very  true  saying. 

Why  Alfred  did  not  have  the  Measles. — Alfred  was 
a  baby  about  eight  months  old,  and  Anna,  his  elder 
sister,  who  often  took  care  of  him,  thought  he  was  a 
very  cunning  baby  indeed. 

One  day  she  heard  her  father  say  to  her  mother,  ^'Do 
you  know  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  measles  about? 
I  hope  the  baby  does  not  catch  it.  He  is  so  deHcate  that 
it  might  go  very  hard  with  him."  Anna  made  up  her 
mind  that  he  should  not  be  sick  if  she  could  help  it. 

When  she  took  Alfred  out  in  his  carriage,  she  was 
very  careful  to  keep  away  from  houses  which  had  the 
Board  of  Health  sign  Measles  on  them,  and  not  to 
stop  and  speak  to  any  children  she  knew,  if  they  were 
coughing  or  sneezing.  One  day  as  she  was  passing  the 
home  of  her  friend,  Ellen  Ramsay,  she  saw  Ellen  sitting 


200 


HEALTHY  LIVING 


on  the  doorstep  looking  rather  miserable  and  using  her 
handkerchief  a  great  deal. 

^' Hullo,  Anna,"  she  cried  out,  "come  in  and  play 
with  me.  And  let  me  hold  Alfred  for  a  little  while. 
I  think  he's  very  cute." 

"No,  I  don't  dare  to,"  replied  Anna,  backing  away. 


Fig.  74. — "No,"  replied  Anna,  "I  am  not  letting  anyone 
come  near  him  for  fear  he  will  get  the  measles." 


dry 


I'm  not  letting  any  one  come  near  him,  for  fear  he 

should  get  the  measles." 

"Oh,  come  on !    I  haven't  anything  but  a  little  cold." 
"You  don't  know  whether  you  have  or  not,  Ellen, 

and  I'm  going  to  take  the  baby  away,  to  be  sure.    Good- 

by.    I  hope  you'll  feel  all  right  to-morrow." 

"'Fraid  Cat,  'fraid  Cat,"  sang  out  Ellen;  and  as 

Anna  went  on  up  the  street,  the  tears  came  into  her 


GERM   DISEASE  201 

blue  eyes,  for  she  knew  she  was  not  afraid  for  herself 
and  it  was  hard  to  be  called  a  coward. 

About  two  weeks  later  Anna  heard  her  father  and 
mother  talking  about  the  measles  again.  "Do  you 
know  the  whole  Ramsay  family  have  it?  And  the  baby 
is  very  sick.  They  fear  it  may  not  live.  Ellen  got  it 
first  and  gave  it  to  all  the  rest.  It's  lucky  Alfred  has 
escaped,  isn't  it?" 

Anna  never  told  them  it  wasn't  "luck"  at  all,  but 
her  own  good  sense  and  the  courage  to  do  what  she 
knew  was  right,  that  had  saved  Alfred. 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Compare  the  game  of  ''Button,  Button,  Who's  Got  the 
Button"  with  the  spread  of  a  germ  disease. 

2.  What  precautions  should  be  taken  by  a  person  in  charge 
of  a  child  sick  with  scarlet  fever,  so  as  to  prevent  the  disease 
being  carried  to  others? 

3.  Make  as  long  a  list  as  you  can,  from  memory,  of  the  com- 
mon signs  of  the  beginning  of  an  attack  of  a  germ  disease. 

4.  Susan  had  measles.  Her  brothers  were  perfectly  well,  but 
they  were  kept  out  of  school  for  two  weeks.    Why? 

5.  How  do  the  school  doctor  and  the  school  nurse  help  to 
prevent  outbreaks  of  disease  in  schools? 

6.  What  are  some  of  the  things  you  should  be  careful  about 
when  you  have  a  cold?    What  may  happen  if  you  are  not? 

7.  Tell  the  story  about  why  Alfred  did  not  have  the  measles. 

8.  Patrick  had  a  sore  throat  and  a  headache  and  felt  feverish. 
He  was  an  ambitious  boy,  however,  and  wanted  to  go  to  school 
just  the  same.  Was  he  right?  Tell  what  might  happen  if 
he  did. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
THE  ARMY  OF  HEALTH 

An  Army  to  Fight  Disease. — ^When  a  nation  goes  to 
war,  it  must  depend  for  safety  upon  its  army  and  navy. 
The  soldiers  and  sailors  have  been  trained  to  fight  the 
enemy  on  land  and  sea,  and  their  officers  have  studied 
the  business  of  war,  so  that  they  know  how  the  campaign 
should  be  carried  on  and  just  how  the  forces  of  the 
nation  can  be  used  to  most  effect. 

In  peace  time  and  in  war  time,  too,  there  is  always 
a  fight  going  on  against  the  microbes  that  cause  disease. 
Do  you  know  about  the  special  army  that  fights  this 
war? 

There  is  such  an  army,  an  army  of  men  and  women 
who  spend  their  lives  in  protecting  you  and  me  from 
our  invisible  foes.  They  are  the  men  and  women 
employed  by  the  Boards  of  Health  of  town  and  city 
and  state  and  by  the  United  States  Public  Health 
Service  at  Washington. 

In  a  war,  every  good  citizen  must  do  all  he  can  to 

help  the  government.    The  army  and  the  navy  alone 

cannot  win,  if  men  and  women  all  over  the  country 

are  not  doing  their  part,  by  making  guns  and  building 

ships  and  growing  grain  and  helping  the  Red  Cross 

and  buying  Liberty  Bonds  and  War  Savings  Stamps. 

It  is  just  the  same  in  the  war  against  disease.    The 

202 


THE  ARMY  OF  HEALTH  203 

Board  of  Health  cannot  keep  us  safe,  if  we  do  not  help 
by  doing  our  part,  every  one  of  us.  We  are  going  to 
learn  in  this  chapter  about  some  of  the  things  that  the 
Board  of  Health  is  trying  to  accomplish,  for  we  cannot 
help  if  we  do  not  understand  something  about  the  tasks 
of  the  health  officer  and  his  doctors  and  nurses  and  in- 
spectors. 

Keeping  the  City  Clean. — One  of  the  things  that  the 
Board  of  Health  has  to  do  is  to  see  that  the  city  is  kept 
clean.  If  there  is  a  heap  of  decaying  refuse  in  a  back 
yard,  for  instance,  or  if  there  is  a  broken  drain  in  the 
cellar,  a  letter  or  a  telephone  call  should  be  sent  to  the 
Board  of  Health.  An  inspector  will  come  and  see  what 
is  wrong;  and  if  the  condition  is  harmful,  he  will  have 
it  remedied. 

Many  conditions  of  this  kind,  with  which  the  Board 
of  Health  must  deal,  have  really  very  little  to  do  with 
health.  They  are  merely  things  that  from  their  smell 
or  their  appearance  are  offensive.  Such  things  are 
called  nuisances.  On  the  other  hand,  some  nuisances 
are  very  important  indeed  from  a  health  standpoint, 
such  as  badly  built  open  closets,  manure  piles  which 
may  breed  flies,  and  pools  of  stagnant  water  which 
may  breed  mosquitoes. 

The  Board  of  Health  does  not  wait  to  be  called  in  by 
the  complaints  of  the  citizens.  Its  men  are  all  the  time 
on  the  lookout  for  bad  conditions,  either  indoors  or  out. 
They  are  constantly  visiting  tenements,  schools,  fac- 
tories, and  theaters,  to  see  that  they  are  well  lighted 
and  have  plenty  of  fresh  air,  and  that  there  are  no 


204  HEALTHY  LIVING 

conditions  dangerous  to  the  health  of  those  who  use 
them. 
Where  the  Water  Comes  from  and  Where  It  Goes.^- 

If  you  Hve  on  a  small  farm,  you  probably  know  very 
well  where  the  water  comes  from.  Perhaps  you  have 
to  go  out  sometimes  and  draw  it  from  the  pump  and 
bring  in  a  pailful.  If  you  live  in  the  city,  however, 
you  have  very  likely  never  thought  about  it  at  all. 
When  you  want  some  water,  you  just  turn  on  the  tap 
and  never  think  how  the  water  always  happens  to  be 
there,  ready  to  flow  out  when  you  need  it. 

The  water  for  a  city  comes  from  some  lake  or  river 
or  from  large  wells.  It  is  often  necessary  to  go  many 
miles  away  to  find  the  water,  and  to  build  great  pipes 
to  carry  it  to  the  city.  The  water  for  New  York  City, 
for  instance,  is  brought  in  a  water  pipe  so  big  that  a 
large  motor  truck  could  easily  drive  through  it  (see 
Fig.  75) .  When  such  a  pipe  reaches  the  city,  it  branches 
into  smaller  and  smaller  pipes  that  run  underground 
through  the  streets,  and  on  at  last  to  your  house  and 
up  to  your  bathroom.  Some  one  must  see  to  the 
building  of  this  water  system,  and  some  one  must 
watch  it  all  the  time  to  see  that  the  water  is  pure  and 
good  and  that  nothing  harmful  or  poisonous  gets 
into  it. 

Besides  the  water  pipes,  there  is  another  set  of  pipes 
in  the  streets,  to  carry  off  the  waste  water  after  it  has 
been  used.  They  are  called  sewers;  and  these,  too, 
must  be  laid  carefuUy  and  kept  in  good  repair.  The 
dirty  water  that  flows  in  them,  called  sewage,  must 


THE  ARMY  OF  HEALTH 


205 


be  disposed  of  in  some  way,  so  that  it  will  not  create  a 
nuisance  or  endanger  health. 

Guarding  Our  Food  Supply. — Other  foods,  as  well 
as  water,  must  be  carefully  watched,  so  that  they  may 
not  carry  the  germs  of  disease.    So  the  Board  of  Health 


Fig.  75. — A  section  of  the  great  pipe  or  aqueduct  which  brings  drink- 
ing water  into  New  York  City,  in  process  of  construction. 

sends  men  out  to  see  that  everything  is  clean  at  the 
farms  from  which  milk  is  sent  in  to  the  city.  Other 
men  inspect  the  stores  where  milk  is  sold,  and  the  stores 
where  all  other  kinds  of  food  are  sold,  to  see  that  they 
are  kept  in  good  condition  and  that  no  people  who  are 
sick  with  germ  diseases  are  allowed  to  handle  the  milk 
or  the  other  foods. 


2o6  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Caring  for  Those  Who  are  Suffering  from  Germ 
Diseases. — Above  all,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Board  of 
Health  to  watch  over  the  people  who  are  actually 
suffering  from  germ  diseases,  so  as  to  prevent,  if  pos- 
sible, the  further  spread  of  the  germs.  As  soon  as  a 
doctor  finds  that  one  of  his  patients  has  a  disease  of 
this  kind,  like  diphtheria  or  scarlet  fever  or  measles  or 
whooping  cough,  he  reports  it  at  once  to  the  Board  of 
Health.  The  Board  of  Health  then  sees  that  the  case 
is  cared  for,  so  that  the  rest  of  the  family  and  other 
people  outside  will  not  be  in  danger. 

In  the  case  of  many  of  these  germ  diseases,  the  Board 
of  Health  can  supply  the  doctor  with  special  prepara- 
tions, called  vaccines  and  sera,  which  will  cure  or 
prevent  disease  of  this  kind.  One  of  these  prepara- 
tions is  smallpox  vaccine,  which  is  rubbed  into  the 
skin  of  the  arm  to  prevent  smallpox — once  a  very 
common  and  terrible  disease.  Every  child  ought  to  be 
protected  by  smallpox  vaccination.  In  the  same  way, 
older  people  can  be  protected  against  typhoid  fever  by 
typhoid  vaccine.  Any  one  who  is  so  unfortunate  as 
to  catch  diphtheria  can  be  cured  by  the  use  of  another 
of  these  preparations,  called  diphtheria  antitoxin. 

The  War  against  Tuberculosis. — There  is  one  germ 
which  is  such  a  very  serious  enemy  of  mankind  that  the 
Board  of  Health  has  special  officers  trained  to  fight 
against  it.  This  disease  is  tuberculosis.  It  is  a  long 
word,  but  every  one  should  know  something  of  what 
it  means. 

The  germ  of  tuberculosis  lives  most  often  in  the 


THE  ARMY   OF  HEALTH  207 

lungs.  The  person  who  has  the  disease  generally  grows 
weak,  thin,  and  feverish  and  has  a  cough.  The  germ 
is  coughed  up  and  spit  out,  in  getting  rid  of  the  matter 
that  gathers  in  the  throat.  One  way  of  stopping  the 
spread  of  tuberculosis  is  by  teaching  people  who  have 
this  disease  not  to  cough  or  spit  carelessly,  and  teaching 
other  people  not  to  put  into  their  mouths  things  that 
may  be  soiled  with  these  germs. 

Another  very  important  way  of  stopping  tuberculosis 
is  by  helping  people  to  keep  their  bodies  in  a  generally 
vigorous  state  of  health,  so  that  when  the  germ  of 
tuberculosis  does  come  along,  it  cannot  gain  a  foothold. 
This  germ  is  not  really  a  very  powerful  one,  and  a 
person  who  is  in  thoroughly  good  health  very  rarely 
has  this  disease  at  all.  It  is  people  who  are  tired  out  or 
have  had  some  other  sickness,  or  those  who  do  not 
have  enough  to  eat,  who  catch  it.  Even  people  who 
have  caught  it  can  generally  get  well  again,  if  they 
lead  a  thoroughly  healthy  life. 

The  Board  of  Health  in  many  cities  tries  to  teach 
every  one  about  this  disease,  so  that  all  can  be  on 
guard  against  it.  It  provides  special  places,  called 
dispensaries,  where  people  who  feel  unwell  or  have  a 
cough  can  go,  to  see  if  they  have  tuberculosis.  It  also 
provides  special  hospitals,  where  people  can  be  cured. 
If  a  person  can  find  out  at  the  beginning  that  he  has 
this  disease,  he  can  almost  always  get  well  under 
proper  care.  He  may  have  to  go  to  a  hospital;  or  he 
may  be  able  to  stay  at  home,  if  he  does  just  what  the 
doctor  orders  and  has  plenty  of  fresh  air  and  rest  and 


2o8  HEALTHY  LIVING 

good  food.  It  is  only  when  the  disease  has  gone  too 
far  that  it  is  dangerous;  and  since  people  found  this 
out,  the  fight  against  tuberculosis  has  gone  on  steadily 
and  successfully. 

Guarding  the  Health  of  School  Children. — ^Almost 
all  diseases  are  like  tuberculosis  in  this:  that  thev  are 
most  easily  cured  at  the  beginning,  before  the  trouble 
has  gone  very  far.  If  you  make  a  hole  in  your  stocking, 
it  wiU  be  easy  for  Mother  to  mend  it  at  first.  If  you 
let  it  go  for  several  days  without  telling  her,  it  will  get 
bigger  and  bigger,  and  finally  perhaps  there  will  be 
nothing  to  do  but  to  throw  the  pair  of  stockings  away. 
It  is  just  so  with  diseases.  At  first,  the  trouble  can 
generally  be  cured;  but  if  you  wait  too  long,  it  may  be 
too  late. 

This  is  why  the  Board  of  Health  (or  in  many  cities 
the  School  Board)  has  doctors  and  nurses  in  the  schools 
to  examine  the  children.  These  doctors  and  school 
nurses  test  the  children's  hearing  and  their  eyesight, 
and  look  at  their  teeth  and  their  throats,  to  see  if  any- 
thing is  beginning  to  go  wrong  and  ought  to  be  remedied. 

Every  child  ought  to  see  clearly,  near  by  and  at  a  dis- 
tance, to  have  keen  hearing,  to  sleep  soundly  and  eat 
heartily,  and  to  be  full  of  the  feeling  of  health  and  vigor. 
If  you  are  not  like  this,  if  you  have  headaches  or  fre- 
quent colds,  or  sensitive  teeth,  there  is  something 
wrong.  It  is  probable  that  the  trouble  can  easily  be 
remedied.  In  such  a  case,  your  mother  should  have 
a  doctor  see  you,  or  your  teacher  should  have  the  school 
doctor  see  you,  for  almost  all  children  can  be  well  and 


THE  ARMY  OF  HEALTH 


209 


vigorous,  if  little  troubles  are  cured  at  the  beginning 
and  if  the  right  habits  of  life  are  formed. 

The  Public  Health  Nurse. — You  children  will  prob- 


Fig.  76. — Children  who  have  tuberculosis  can  gen- 
erally be  cured  by  going  to  a  sanatorium  where 
they  can  hve  most  of  the  time  outdoors  and  be 
under  proper  medical  care. 

ably  go  to  school  for  several  years  more  and  will  be 
learning  new  things  all  the  time.  When  you  finally 
leave  school,  perhaps  you  may  think  you  know  all 
there  is  to  know!  This  will  not  be  so — not  even  if  you 
go  to  high  school  and  college,  and  go  on  studying  till 


2IO       .  HEALTHY  LIVING 

you  are  a  fuU  grown  man  or  woman.  There  wiU  always 
be  new  things  to  learn;  and  the  wise  person  keeps  on 
learning  as  much  as  he  can  aU  through  his  life. 

This  is  particularly  true  in  health  matters.  New  and 
better  ways  of  fighting  diseases  and  keeping  people 
healthy  are  being  found  out  all  the  time.  So  perhaps 
the  most  important  of  all  the  things  the  Board  of 
Health  does  is  to  teach — ^not  only  children  in  the 
schools  but  grown  people,  like  your  fathers  and 
mothers, — how  to  keep  well. 

The  Board  of  Health  does  this  by  lectures  and  ex- 
hibits, by  printing  and  giving  away  leaflets,  and  in 
many  other  ways.  Perhaps  the  best  way  of  all  is  by 
means  of  Public  Health  nurses.  These  nurses  go  out 
through  the  city,  showing  the  people  with  germ  diseases 
what  they  can  do  to  keep  from  giving  the  diseases  to 
others.  They  show  the  people  with  tuberculosis  how 
they  ought  to  take  care  of  themselves,  in  order  to  be 
cured.  They  show  the  mothers  just  the  best  way  of 
taking  care  of  their  young  babies,  so  as  to  keep  them 
well.  The  Public  Health  nurse  is  one  of  the  most 
efficient  officers  in  the  army  that  fights  against 
disease. 

Janet* s  Argument. — Janet  lived  in  a  small  city  called 
HealthviUe,  and  her  Uncle  Jim  and  his  children  lived 
in  a  much  bigger  city,  Richtown,  about  an  hour's  ride 
away  on  the  train.  Janet  was  very  fond  of  her  cousins 
and  was  delighted  when  she  heard  they  were  coming 
to  pay  her  a  \dsit.  It  seemed  a  long  time  till  they 
arrived,  and  you  may  be  sure  she  was  all  ready  and 


THE  ARMY  OF  HEALTH  211 

watching  at  the  door  when  Uncle  Jim  and  the  two  httle 
girls  came  up  the  street. 

As  soon  as  the  visitors  had  come  in  and  taken  off 
their  things,  they  sat  down  to  talk,  for  Janet's  mother 
and  father  had  not  seen  Uncle  Jim  for  a  long  time. 
He  explained  that  there  was  a  very  bad  epidemic  of 
diphtheria  in  Richtown,  so  that  all  the  schools  had  been 
closed;  and  that  he  had  brought  the  children  for  a  long 
visit,  until  the  epidemic  was  over  and  it  was  safe  to  take 
them  home. 

Janet  and  her  cousins  were  so  happy  in  thinking  of 
the  good  times  they  were  to  have  together,  and  so 
busy  in  planning  for  all  the  things  they  were  going  to 
do,  that  Janet  did  not  hear  what  the  grown-ups  were 
saying  for  a  long  time.  When  she  did  listen  again, 
Uncle  Jim  was  talking,  as  he  often  did,  about  what  a 
fine  place  Richtown  was.  This  was  one  thing  about 
Uncle  Jim  that  Janet  never  liked;  for  she  thought 
Healthville,  where  she  lived,  was  the  nicest  place  on 
earth. 

"We  have  just  built  a  new  hotel,  fourteen  stories  high 
and  fireproof,"  Uncle  Jim  was  saying.  "With  the 
Opera  House  opposite,  the  Central  Square  is  a  fine 
sight.  Now  that  we  have  the  Carnegie  Library  and 
the  new  High  School  and  all  the  Parks  and  Boulevards, 
there  isn't  a  finer  city  in  the  whole  Middle  West." 

"Well,  there's  one  thing  we  have  in  Healthville  that's 
better  than  Richtown,  Uncle  Jim,"  said  Janet  eagerly. 

"What's  that,  child?"  he  asked  smiling,  as  if  he  was 
quite  sure  she  was  mistaken. 


212  HEALTHY  LIVING 

"  Our  Board  of  Health/'  answered  Janet.  "You  have 
so  much  diphtheria  that  your  fine  schools  are  all  closed. 
But  our  teacher  told  us  our  Board  of  Health  was  so 
good  that  there  hadn't  been  a  case  of  diphtheria  in  the 
school  in  five  years.  Libraries  and  opera  houses  aren't 
any  good  if  you  are  sick;  and  if  you  are  well,  you  can 
have  a  good  time  anyway." 

Questions  por  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  What  are  some  of  the  duties  of  the  Board  of  Health? 

2.  Why  are  badly  built  outside  closets,  manure  piles,  and 
pools  of  stagnant  water  dangerous  from  the  standpoint  of 
health? 

3.  See  if  you  can  think  of  any  nuisances  in  your  town  that 
ought  to  be  called  to  the  attention  of  the  Board  of  Health. 

4.  Find  out,  if  you  can,  where  the  water  supply  of  your  school 
comes  from. 

5.  What  are  vaccines  and  sera?  Give  three  examples  of  dis- 
eases in  which  they  are  useful. 

6.  How  can  tuberculosis  be  prevented? 

7.  Is  there  a  school  doctor  or  a  school  nurse,  or  both,  in  your 
school?    If  so,  what  do  they  do? 

8.  Why  do  even  grown  people  have  to  keep  learning  all  the 
time  about  health  matters? 

9.  What  do  you  think  of  Janet's  argument  about  the  supe- 
riority of  Healthville? 

10.  If  Janet  was  right,  what  is  the  most  important  thing  any 
town  can  do  for  its  citizens? 


CHAPTER  XIX 
SOME  RULES  FOR  HEALTH 

The  Dream  of  John  Paul  Jones. — One  of  the  most 
famous  figures  in  the  War  of  the  American  Revolution 
was  John  Paul  Jones,  the  first  of  America's  naval  heroes. 
He  was  born  in  Scotland,  the  son  of  a  gardener.  There 
is  a  story  that,  in  his  boyhood,  he  was  one  day  lying  on 
a  rock  in  the  warm  sun  after  a  swim  in  the  ocean.  He 
fell  asleep  and  dreamed  a  curious  dream.  He  dreamed 
that  he  was  the  captain  of  a  ship  and  was  fighting  a 
great  naval  battle.  Guns  were  roaring,  the  air  was  full 
of  smoke,  and  on  the  mast  over  his  head  floated  a 
strange  flag  with  red  and  white  stripes  on  it  and  stars 
in  a  square  in  the  corner.  He  told  a  friend,  an  English 
naval  oflicer,  about  this  dream.  His  friend  replied  that 
he  hoped  John  Paul  might  some  day  command  a  ship, 
but  that  it  would  not  be  under  such  a  flag  as  he  de- 
scribed because  there  was  no  flag  like  that  in  the  world — 
and  there  was  not  at  that  time. 

John  Paul  loved  the  ocean,  and  he  went  to  sea  as 
apprentice,  or  helper,  when  he  was  only  twelve  years 
old.  Before  he  was  twenty-five,  he  became  captain  of 
a  merchant  ship.  In  1773,  two  years  before  the  War 
of  the  Revolution,  he  came  to  America  and  made  his 
home  in  Virginia.    He  saw,  as  many  people  did,  that 

the  American  states  (at  that  time  colonies  of  Great 

213 


214  HEALTHY  LIVING 

Britain)  must  soon  become  independent.  It  is  even 
said  that  he  told  George  Washington  long  before  the 
war  began:  "Remember,  when  it  comes  I  shall  be 
ready." 

When  the  war  did  come,  John  Paul  was  indeed  ready. 
He  was  placed  in  command  of  a  small  fleet  of  American 
and  French  ships,  with  which  he  fought  most  gallantly 
against  the  British.  His  greatest  battle  was  that  in 
which  his  ship,  the  Bonhomme  Richard^  vanquished  the 
Serapis'  According  to  the  story  that  some  people  tell, 
the  captain  of  the  Serapis  was  the  very  man  to  whom 
John  Paul  had  told  his  dream  many  years  before.  If 
so,  he  must  have  been  surprised  to  be  beaten  by  a  ship 
flying  the  very  flag  that  little  John  Paul  had  dreamed 
about  so  long  ago,  while  the  United  States  were  still 
under  the  British  flag. 

Serving  the  Stars  and  Stripes. — I  do  not  suppose  any 
of  you  have  had  a  dream  just  like  that  of  John  Paul 
Jones.  I  think,  however,  that  many  of  you  must  have 
had  some  sort  of  dream  of  serving  your  country  and 
your  flag.  You  have  seen  the  Stars  and  Stripes  flying 
from  almost  every  house,  and  have  thought  of  our 
soldiers  fighting  under  that  flag  in  France,  and  have 
planned  that  when  you  grow  up  you  will  do  great 
things  for  your  country,  too.  Even  if  it  is  never  nec- 
essary for  you  to  fight  or  to  nurse  the  wounded  in  war, 
your  country  will  need  your  loyalty  and  your  devotion, 
to  do  her  work  in  peace  and  to  help  with  all  your  might 
to  make  the  United  States  of  America  a  greater  and  a 
nobler  and  a  better  country. 


SOME   RULES  FOR  HEALTH 


215 


When  John  Paul  Jones  saw  the  war  coming,  he  could 
tell  Washington  that  he  was  "ready."  That  is  what 
your  country  wants  you  to  be  to-day,  ready  for  what- 


Fig.  77. — ^The  motto  of  the  American  boy  and 
the  American  girl  is  "Preparedness  for 
our  country's  service." 

ever  she  may  call  you  to  do.  She  wants  you  to  be 
ready  in  heart:  unselfish,  devoted,  brave,  fair,  honest. 
She  wants  you  to  be  ready  in  mind:  quick,  thoughtful, 
well  trained,  full  of  knowledge.    She  wants  you  to  be 


2i6  HEALTHY  LIVING 

ready  in  body:  strong  and  sound  and  full  of  abounding 
health. 

Do  not  think  of  health,  then,  as  just  something  for 
yourself.  If  you  lived  alone  on  a  desert  island  like 
Robinson  Crusoe,  you  might  have  a  right  to  say,  "Oh 
well,  I  don't  care.  I'd  rather  have  indigestion  or  catch 
cold  than  bother."  As  it  is,  you  are  a  part  of  your 
country.  Think  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes  and  what  you 
can  do  for  the  flag  when  you  grow  up.  Be  ready,  as 
John  Paul  Jones  was  ready,  when  your  country  needs 
you. 

Keeping  the  Body  Fit. — ^Let  us  see  what  the  most 
important  things  are  that  you  ought  to  do,  in  order  to 
keep  your  body  strong  and  well  and  ready  for  your 
country's  service.  You  have  learned  about  most  of 
them  in  this  book,  but  it  will  be  helpful  to  set  them 
all  down  in  order  here. 

1.  Hold  Your  Body  Well.  The  first  essential  of  health 
and  strength  is  to  hold  the  body  well,  with  the  back 
straight  and  the  head  high.  No  good  soldier  slouches. 
Stand  well,  sit  well,  walk  well. 

2.  Exercise  Your  Muscles.  The  muscles  grow  with 
use.  In  certain  diseases  something  happens  to  the 
nerves,  so  that  a  leg  or  an  arm  perhaps  cannot  be  used. 
Such  a  leg  or  arm  shrivels  up  and  grows  small  and  weak. 
On  the  contrary,  a  child  who  uses  his  muscles,  grows 
stronger  all  the  time.  Don't  be  lazy.  Exercise  till  you 
are  tired,  and  each  day  you  can  do  a  little  more  than 
the  day  before.  Learn  to  swim  and  to  ride,  if  you  can. 
Learn  to  play  all  sorts  of  athletic  games,  and  partic- 


SOME   RULES   FOR   HEALTH  217 

ularly  those  games,  like  football  and  baseball  and 
basket  ball,  that  involve  team  play  and  teach  you  to 
cooperate  with  others  for  the  common  good. 

3.  Keep  Your  Skin  Healthy.  Health,  as  we  have 
seen,  depends  in  large  measure  on  the  condition  of  the 
little  blood  vessels  in  the  skin.  Don't  sit  in  a  room 
that  is  too  hot.    Don't  wear  clothinor  that  is  too  hea\^. 


Fig.  78. — The  boy  who  learns  to  swim  may  be  able  to  save  his  own 
life  and  that  of  others  when  an  accident  occurs. 

On  the  other  hand,  don't  get  chilled.  Take  a  cold 
bath  in  the  morning,  if  you  find  that  you  feel  brisk  and 
toned  up  after  it. 

4.  Breathe  Fresh  Air.  Breathe  deeply  and  get  plenty 
of  good  air  into  your  lungs.  Sleep  all  the  year  round 
with  your  windows  open.  Play  in  the  fresh  air  out- 
doors as  much  as  you  can. 

5.  Get  Sufficient  Rest.  Don't  forget  that  your  body 
and  your  brain  need  rest  as  well  as  exercise.     Get  a 


2i8  HEALTHY  LIVING 

good  long  night's  sleep,  so  as  to  feel  fresh  and  vigorous 
for  the  next  day. 

6.  Eat  Wisely.  Learn  to  like  all  kinds  of  good  foods, 
and  particularly  drink  plenty  of  milk  and  eat  all  the 
fresh  fruits  and  vegetables  you  can  get.  Don't  eat  too 
much  candy  or  pastry.  Eat  slowly,  and  don't  eat  much 
between  meals.  Drink  plenty  of  water.  Many  chil- 
dren do  not  drink  as  much  water  as  the  body  needs. 

7.  Avoid  Poisons.  Don't  let  your  body  be  poisoned 
by  decayed  food  in  your  intestines.  Have  a  regular 
movement  of  the  bowels  at  least  once  a  day.  When 
you  grow  older,  make  up  your  mind  not  to  poison  your 
body  with  alcoholic  drinks  and  not  to  use  tobacco, 
until  you  are  full-grown. 

8.  Keep  Clean.  Keep  your  teeth  sound  and  strong 
by  regular,  thorough  brushing.  Keep  your  nails  and 
your  hair  clean  and  neat. 

Guarding  against  Germ  Diseases. — If  you  follow 
the  rules  outlined  above,  your  body  ought  to  be  strong 
and  healthy  and  fit  for  any  service.  All  the  strength 
and  health  may  disappear  in  a  few  hours,  however,  if 
the  germ  of  some  disease  gets  in  and  makes  a  successful 
attack.  So  there  are  other  precautions  that  you  ought 
to  remember,  in  guarding  against  these  unseen  enemies 
of  yours. 

1.  Guard  the  Gateway  of  the  Mouth.  Keep  out  of  the 
mouth  everything  that  is  not  clean.  That  means  fingers 
and  everything  except  clean  food  and  the  tooth-brush, 
for  you  can  never  be  sure  that  other  things  are  clean. 

2.  Eat  Clean  Food.    Eat  only  clean  food;  that  is,  food 


SOME  RULES   FOR  HEALTH 


219 


that  has  been  cooked  or  thoroughly  washed  and  has  not 
been  handled  by  any  one  with  unclean  hands,  or  by  any 
one  who  is  ill .   Do  not  eat  food  that  is  the  least  bit  spoiled. 


Fig.  79. — Every  Boy  Scout  must  know 
how  to  help  in  case  of  an  accident. 

3.  Eat  with  Clean  Hands.  Always  wash  your  hands 
thoroughly  before  coming  to  the  table  and  before  eating 
between  meals.  Always  wash  your  hands  after  using 
the  toilet. 

4.  Fight  against  Insect  Pests.  Do  all  you  can  to  help 
in  the  war  against  insect  pests.    Help  to  kill  flies  and 


220  HEALTHY  LIVING 

mosquitoes  and  to  do  away  with  the  filth  and  stagnant 
water  in  which  they  breed.  Keep  flies  and  mosquitoes 
out  of  the  house,  and  keep  flies  away  from  food. 

5.  Avoid  Infection.  Do  not  run  needless  risk  of 
catching  colds  or  other  diseases  by  being  with  people 
who  are  ill,  unless  there  is  some  good  reason  why  you 
must.  Do  not  kiss  people  who  are  ill  or  handle  the 
things  they  have  handled,  unless  it  is  necessary. 

6.  See  the  Doctor  in  Time,  If  you  do  not  feel  quite 
well,  ask  to  see  the  school  doctor.  It  may  save  you 
a  serious  illness  and  may  safeguard  many  other  people, 
if  you  consult  the  doctor  in  time.  If  you  do  not  feel 
well,  keep  away  from  babies  and  small  children,  so  as 
to  protect  them  from  possible  danger. 

Accidents. — ^Accidents  sometimes  happen  to  every 
one,  and  it  is  important  to  know  what  to  do  when  an 
accident  occurs. 

1.  Cinders  or  Dust  Particles  in  the  Eye.  Very  often, 
for  instance,  a  piece  of  fine  dust  or  a  cinder  gets  into 
your  eye.  The  most  natural  thing  to  do,  perhaps,  is 
to  rub  your  eye,  but  this  only  makes  the  pain  worse. 
Sometimes  the  cinder  can  be  seen  on  the  surface  of  the 
eye,  and  some  one  can  get  it  out  on  the  corner  of  a  clean 
handkerchief.  Sometimes  if  the  eye  is  kept  closed  for 
a  few  minutes,  the  tears  will  wash  it  out.  Blowing  the 
nose  will  sometimes  help.  If  the  eye  still  hurts  after 
these  things  have  been  done,  you  should  go  to  some 
older  person  and  let  him  try  to  get  the  cinder  out. 

2.  Cuts  and  Scratches.  Any  child  who  plays  as  a 
healthy  child  should,  will  sometimes  get  scratched  or 


SOME   RULES   FOR   HEALTH 


221 


cut.  The  great  thing  to  remember  in  such  a  case  is 
to  keep  the  place  clean,  so  that  harmful  germs  may  not 
get  in.  If  the  cut  is  a  little  one,  it  should  be  washed 
out  thoroughly  with  clean  water  and  covered  with 
clean  gauze.    If  the  cut  is  a  bad  one  or  a  deep  one,  such 


Fig.  80. — Prompt  treatment  of  a  cut  or  a  sprain  or  a  bruise  will 
often  prevent  suffering  and  injury. 

as  is  made  by  a  rusty  nail,  it  should  always  be  dressed 
by  a  doctor.  The  bite  of  an  animal  is  particularly 
dangerous,  since  the  teeth  of  an  animal  are  always 
dirty.  Remember  that  any  scratch,  however  slight, 
should  be  shown  to  the  doctor  if  it  grows  red  and  hot. 

3.  Bruises  and  Insect  Stings.     Bruises  will  be  less 
painful  if  a  cloth  wrung  out  in  cold  water  is  placed  over 


222  HEALTHY  LIVING 

them.  Insect  stings  can  be  relieved  by  putting  ammo- 
nia on  them,  and,  to  some  extent,  by  plastering  a  little 
wet  mud  over  the  place  that  has  been  bitten. 

4.  Poisons.  You  ought  to  be  very  careful  indeed 
never  to  take  any  medicine,  except  what  your  parents 
or  the  doctor  give  you.  Never  drink  anything  out  of  a 
bottle  or  anything  that  some  one  has  left  standing  in 
a  glass,  even  if  it  looks  clear  like  water.  Many  of  the 
medicines  used  when  people  are  ill  would  be  deadly 
poisons  if  taken  by  a  child,  or  by  any  one  else,  except  in 
just  the  amount  and  the  way  the  doctor  orders. 

5.  Frostbites  and  Chilblains.  If  your  fingers  or  ears 
or  nose  should  get  frostbitten  in  winter,  remember  not 
to  go  near  the  fire  or  into  a  hot  room  for  a  while,  as  a 
sudden  change  from  cold  to  hot  makes  the  pain  much 
worse.  The  thing  to  do  is  to  rub  the  part  that  has  been 
frozen  with  snow  or  very  cold  water,  until  the  blood 
has  come  back  and  the  flesh  begins  to  sting  and  bum. 
If  you  have  those  painful  itching  swellings  called 
chilblains,  you  should  never  put  your  feet  near  the  fire 
or  over  the  register. 

6.  Burns.  The  best  thing  to  do  for  a  burn  is  to  cover 
the  place  with  vaseline  or  with  a  paste  made  of  baking 
soda  and  water.    This  will  make  the  pain  much  less. 

If  a  blister  forms,  don't  pick  it  off  and  run  the  risk 
of  getting  harmful  germs  in,  but  let  it  heal  naturally. 

If  your  clothing  should  catch  fire,  don't  run,  because 
the  air  will  make  the  fire  bum  faster.  Lie  down  and 
roll  on  the  floor  to  smother  it,  and  wrap  yourself  in  a 
rug  or  coat  or  shawl,  if  you  can  find  one.    The  cloth 


SOME   RULES   FOR  HEALTH 


223 


should  be  wrapped  from  above  down,  so  as  not  to  drive 
the  flames  up  toward  the  mouth. 

Above  all,  when  an  accident  occurs,  keep  cool.  Don't 
lose  your  head,  but  think  out  the  right  thing  to  do  and 
then  do  it. 

Safety  First. — We  want  every  American  boy  and 


Fig.  8 1 . — Thousands  of  children  lose  their  lives  every  year  by 

playing  in  the  street. 

girl  to  be  brave  enough  to  risk  his  or  her  life  if  necessary; 
but  we  do  not  want  any  one  to  risk  his  Hfe  carelessly 
or  foolishly. 

I.  Street  Accidents.  It  is  not  courage  but  foolishness 
to  run  and  play  in  the  street  in  front  of  automobiles 
and  trucks.  Thousands  of  children  are  killed  in  this 
way  every  year.  Stealing  rides,  coasting  in  the  street, 
and  roller  skating  in  the  street  are  all  dangerous  amuse- 


224  HEALTHY  LIVING 

merits.  Many  children  do  these  things  and  escape, 
but  every  now  and  then  one  is  killed.  You  may  be 
that  one. 

2.  Accidents  from  Fire.  Another  thing  that  children 
should  be  very  careful  about  is  fire  in  any  form.  I 
hope  you  never  play  with  matches  or  make  bonfires, 
unless  you  are  with  some  grown  person,  for  much  dam- 
age and  the  loss  of  many  lives  is  due  to  carelessness  of 
this  kind. 

3.  Accidents  in  the  Water.  Water  is  almost  as  dan- 
gerous as  fire..  If  you  cannot  swim,  keep  away  from 
bridges  and  steep  banks  where  you  might  fall  in. 
When  you  are  in  a  boat,  sit  quietly  and  don't  take  the 
chance  of  upsetting  everybody  on  board. 

4.  Accidents  from  Wires.  Never  touch  wires  hanging 
from  poles  or  trees.  There  may  be  an  electric  current 
passing  through  them  which  would  give  you  a  fatal 
shock. 

Modern  Health  Crusaders.— Richard  the  Lion 
Heart,  about  whom  you  read  in  Chapter  XI,  and  the 
other  brave  soldiers  who  went  out  long  ago  to  try  to 
free  the  Holy  City  of  Jerusalem  from  the  Turks,  were 
called  Crusaders.  So  we  give  the  name  "Crusaders" 
to  any  group  of  people  who  band  themselves  together 
to  fight  against  some  evil  thing.  A  crusade  for  health 
and  against  disease  is  one  of  the  things  in  which  we  all 
ought  to  be  concerned.  So  a  short  time  ago  an  organiza- 
tion of  children  was  formed  called  ''The  Modem 
Health  Crusaders,''  and  it  is  said  that  a  hundred  thou- 
sand children  are  now  enrolled.    Each  child  who  wants 


SOME   RULES   FOR   HEALTH 


225 


FIRST  WEEK 


Statements  of  Chores 

1.  I  washed  my  hands  before  each 
meal  to-day. 

2.  I  drank  a  glass  of  water  before 
each  meal  and  before  going  to  bed 
to-day. 

3.  I  brushed  my  teeth  in  the  morn- 
ing and  in  the  evening  to-day. 

4.  I  took  ten  or  more  slow  d^ep 
breaths  of  fresh  air  to-day. 

5.  I  played  outdoors  or  with  win- 
dows open  more  than  thirty 
minutes  to-day. 

6.  I  was  in  bed  ten  hours  or  more 
last  night  and  kept  my  window 
open. 

7.  I  tried  to-day  to  sit  up  and  stand 
up  straight,  to  eat  slowly,  and  to 
attend  to  toilet  and  each  need  of 
my  body  at  its  regular  time. 

8.  I  took  a  full  bath  on  each  day  of 
the  week  that  is  checked  (x). 

Total  number  of  chores  done  each  day 


^.U/LirtxC'  KQu.Jicl.  .did.  Health  Chores  as  indicated  by  the  above 

<7  Name  of  Child 

X  marks,  making  a  total  of. .  ..V.^. Chores  in  the  first  week. 

Number 

. ^A^^^Anloa.  .<LeudUL .  . . .9... .  .y^'. .oCOr^C^... 

Signature  of  Child  (/  Signature  0/  Parent 

.  .i.z.  .'1j'../>.a<<4  .  .<&/: 


SUN. 

/ 

MON 

TIE. 

XT 

WF.D 

THl'. 

X 

FRl 

SAT. 

-r 

V 

K 

K 

K 

ir 

A- 

K 

y 

+ 

+ 

y 

X 

^ 
Y 

< 

K 

r 

X 

>f 

V 

Jr 

Jr 

X 

X 

< 

X 

/ 

K 

K 

K 

^ 

A- 

^ 

A- 

^ 

xf 

y 

X 

7 

L 

C 

7 

i 

L 

7 

Address 


Pig.  82,— A  daily  chart  of  Health  Chores  for  Health  Crusaders. 


226  HEALTHY  LIVING 

to  join  is  given  a  card  like  Fig.  82.  Every  day  at  bed- 
time his  father  or  mother  checks  off  each  of  the  eight 
chores  (given  on  the  left  of  the  card)  that  the  child  has 
done  that  day.  At  the  bottom  for  each  day  is  given 
the  total  number  of  chores  done  for  that  day.  To  be 
a  Modern  Health  Crusader,  a  child  must  do  at  least 
forty  of  the  chores  a  week.^ 

I  hope  every  child  who  has  read  this  book  will  be 
at  heart  a  Health  Crusader.  It  does  not  matter,  per- 
haps, whether  you  belong  to.  the  organization  or  not. 
It  does  matter,  however,  that  you  should  want  to  be 
strong  and  well  and  fit  for  your  country's  service,  and 
that  you  should  want  to  help  every  one  else  to  be  strong 
and  well  for  the  same  purpose.  That  is  what  being  a 
Modern  Health  Crusader  really  means. 

Questions  for  Discussion  and  Review 

1.  Who  was  John  Paul  Jones?    Tell  the  story  of  his  dream. 

2.  What  kind  of  people  are  needed  to  serve  our  country? 
What  sort  of  things  can  you  do  to  keep  yourself  fit  for  your 
country's  services? 

3.  Alfred  could  not  throw  either  very  straight  or  very  hard, 
when  he  was  little.  He  practiced  every  day  and  at  last  he  could 
throw  a  baseball  farther  and  straighter  than  any  other  boy  in 
school.  What  had  been  happening  in  his  body  while  he  was 
practicing? 

4.  Why  is  a  girl  who  plays  outdoors  and  sleeps  with  her  bed- 
room window  open  more  likely  to  be  useful  to  her  country  than 
one  who  has  lived  most  of  the  time  in  overheated  rooms? 

1  For  further  information  about  Modem  Health  Crusaders  write  to 
the  National  Association  for  the  Study  and  Prevention  of  Tuber- 
culosis, 105  East  2 2d  Street,  New  York  City. 


SOME  RULES   FOR   HEALTH  227 

5.  What  are  the  six  rules  given  in  the  text  for  guarding  against 
germ  diseases? 

6.  What  is  the  wrong  thing  to  do  when  a  cinder  gets  in  your 
eye?    What  are  some  of  the  good  things  to  do? 

7.  Explain  why  it  is  that  a  cut  or  a  scratch  should  be  washed 
clean  and  covered  with  gauze.  What  kinds  of  wounds  should 
always  be  dressed  by  a  doctor? 

8.  What  is  the  proper  thing  to  do  if  your  nose  is  frostbitten? 

9.  Eleanor  played  too  near  the  stove  and  her  dress  caught 
fire.  She  screamed  and  started  to  run  downstairs.  Luckily  her 
brother  heard  her  and  quickly  threw  her  down  on  the  floor  and 
wrapped  her  in  a  rug.  Why  was  what  she  did  dangerous,  and 
what  he  did  wise? 

10.  George  had  a  habit  of  crossing  the  street  in  the  city  be- 
tween the  cross  streets,  running  and  dodging  between  the  auto- 
mobiles. When  he  was  told  it  was  dangerous,  he  said  he  had 
never  been  run  over  yet.  Was  that  a  good  argument?  If  not, 
why  not? 

11.  What  is  a  Modern  Health  Crusader?  What  does  the  word 
crusader  mean? 

12.  What  are  the  health  chores  that  a  Health  Crusader  has 
to  do?    How  many  of  them  did  you  do  yesterday? 


INDEX 


A  star  (*)  after  a  page  number  indicates  an  illustration. 


Absorption,  95. 

Accidents,  prevention  of,  223,  224; 
what  to  do,  220-222. 

Air,  and  health,  112,  217-218; 
efifect  of  good,  17-18  *;  good  and 
bad,  136;  outdoor,  138;  rule  for 
breathing  fresh,  217. 

Airplanes,  71  *. 

Alcohol,  and  nervous  system,  67- 
68, 148  *;  and  success,  151-152  *; 
as  a  drug,  150;  cost  of,  153; 
efifect  on  circulation,  130;  efifect 
on  health,  150;  in  war  time,  153- 
154;  use  of,  a  harmful  habit,  54; 
wastes  grain,  153. 

Alimentary  canal,  91,  92  *,  93. 

Antitoxin,  206. 

Arms,  arrangement  of  bones  in, 
34*,  35;  structure  of,  25. 

Army-telephone  system,  58  *. 

Arteries,  function  of,  121. 

Automobile,  like  the  human  ma- 
chine, 26  *. 

Backbone,  function  of,  32. 
Bacteria,     study     of,     161-162  *. 

(See  Disease  Germs,  Microbes.) 
Bathing,  to  make  ready  for  day's 

work,  12;  reasons  for,  133,  189; 

warm  and  cold,  134. 
Bering's  voyage  into  Arctic,  84-85. 
Biceps  muscle,  function  of,  45  *. 
Bladder,  97,  170. 
Blood,  23,  122,  124;  cells  of,  122, 


123  *,    124;    circulation   of,    28, 
121-130. 

Blood  vessels,  railroad  system  of 
body,  27;  regulation  of  size  of, 
127;  system  of,  121,  122  *,  123  *; 
walls  of,  127-129. 

Board  of  Health,  194,  195,  198; 
duties  of,  204-212. 

Body,  care  of  (see  Bathing);  com- 
pared with  machinery,  22;  how 
to  strengthen  by  food,  14;  how 
parts  move,  44;  how  parts  work 
together,  57;  keeping  fit,  216- 
218;  need  for  rest,  18;  parts  of, 
22;  posture,  13,  35  *,  36,  40,  216; 
preparing  food  for,  26,  91; 
wonders  of,  20,  21  *. 

Bones,  24,  34,  35;  composition  of, 
32. 

Boone,  story  of  Daniel,  156-157  *. 

Boy  Scouts,  63  *,  190,  191  *,  215  *, 
219  *. 

Brain,  and  nerves,  28;  and  spinal 
cord,  58;  function  of,  16,  23; 
parts  of,  23. 

Breakfast,  need  of  a  good,  14. 

Breastbone,  function  of  34. 

Breathing,  110-119;  diseases  of 
organs,  119;  how  movements  are 
made,  117;  hygiene  of  organs, 
118;  object  of,  113;  organs  of, 
27,  iio-m;  reason  for,  26. 

Bretteville,  story  of  Louis  de,  64- 
68. 


229 


230 


INDEX 


BroncM,  iii  *. 

Bronchitis,  119. 

Bruises  and  stings,  221  *. 

Brushes'  quarrel,  story  of  the,  105, 

106  *,  107. 
Burns,  222,  ,223. 
Button,    button,    who's    got    the 

button,  194. 

Carbon  dioxide,  114;  in  blood,  124. 
Carriers,  human,  165,  174;  insect, 
;  166. 

Cells,  122,  123  *,  124. 
Chilblains,  222. 
Cinders  in  eye,  220. 
Circulation,  process  of,  127. 
Circulatory   system,   effect  of  al- 
cohol and  tobacco  on   130;  work 

of,  127-129. 
City,  keeping  clean,  203. 
Cleanliness,  133*,  170*,  168-178, 
■  203,  219. 

Cleanville,  story  of  how  Mrs.  Fly 
;   and  Mrs.  Mosquito  leave,  191  *, 

192. 
Clothing,  and  weather,  15  *;  how  it 

helps  and  harms  the  skin,  135  *; 

keeping  clean,  189. 
Coffee,  146,  147. 
Cold  in   the  head,  119,  124,  165, 

195;  cause  of,  159. 
Consumption.     (See  Tuberculosis.) 
Contact,  microbes  spread  by,  166. 
Crown  of  teeth,  loi  *. 
Crusaders,  Modern  Health,  224. 
Cup,  how  to  make  a  paper  drinking, 

175  *;  use  of  a  common  drinking, 

174  *,  176. 
Cuts,  care  of,  177,  178,  220,  221  *. 

Danger  signals,  196. 
Day,  getting  ready  for,  11;  well- 
spent,  II. 


Diaphragm,  23  *,  117. 

Diet,     experiment    to    determine 

best,  8s  *;  a  good,  14,  86,  87. 
Digestion,    26,    91,    94,    95;    and 

happy  state  of  mind,  96  *,  97; 

in  gooding  working  order,  96  *, 

97- 
Digestive  juices,  91;  action  of,  92, 

93-  . 

Diphtheria,  159. 

Diseases,  and  Board  of  Health,  206; 
army  against,  202;  as  enemies, 
158;  carried  by  flies,  166,  181; 
contagious,  164;  tropical,  189. 

Disease  germs,  keeping  out  of 
schoolroom,  198;  keeping  out  of 
the  mouth,  172;  preventing 
spread  of,  194, 195;  responsibility 
about,  198;  rules  for  guarding 
against,  219;  watching  people 
exposed  to,  197  *i  caring  for 
those  who  suffer  from,  195. 
(See  Microbes.) 

Dispensaries,  207. 

Dressing,  according  to  the  weather, 

^    15*.         ' 

Drugs,  149;  alcohol  as  a  drug,  150. 

Ear,  drum,  78;  function  of,  23,  74; 

guarding  against  diseases  of,  79; 

how  we  hear,  78;  structure  of,  78. 
Eating,    wiseily,    218;    with    clean 

hands,  219. 
Enamel  of  teeth,  loi. 
Enemy,  spying  out,  70. 
Energy,  25. 

Esophagus,  23  *,  93,  III  *. 
Evening  talk,  story  of,  190-192. 
Exercise,  and  games,  16;  kinds,  52; 

morning,  12;  setting-up,  36,.  37- 

39  *;  why  muscles  need,  216.  ;  ^ 
Eyes,  and  eyeglasses,  76*,  77;  de- 


INDEX 


231 


:  fects  of,  75,  76,  77;  function  of, 
23;  keeping  in  good  condition, 
77;  structure  of,  74  *,  75- 

Fable  of  the  organs  of  the  body,  23. 

Far-sightedness,  75. 

Fermentation,  153. 

Fever,  129;  scarlet,  196;  typhoid, 
124,  170;  yellow,  187. 

"Fingers,  food,  and  flies,"  166. 

Fire,  safety  from,  224. 

First  aid,  219  *   220-222. 

Flies,  development  of,  179,  180  *; 
and  disease,  166,  181;  feet  of, 
181;  fighting  against,  182,  189- 
191;  traps  for,  183. 

Foods,  and  growth,  81;  and  health, 
218;  amount  and  kind  of,  14, 
as  fuel,  26  *;  clean  and  pure^ 
•  174*,  175,  176*;  cooked,  176; 
conquering  dislike  of,  15;  decay 
of,  17s;  energy  in,  8r,  82  *; 
getms  spread  by,  166;  ideal,  86, 
87;  preservation  of,  175;  saving 
in  war  time,  87,  88  *;  uncooked, 
176,  177;  variety  of,  83  *;  where 

.  they  come  from,  86. 

Food  supply,  guarding  the,  205, 
206. 

Freedom,  enemies  to,  144-146. 

Frostbites,  222. 

Gases,  112. 

Germs,  159;  in  wounds,  177.    (See 

Disease  Germs,  Microbes.) 
Glands,  sweat,  129. 
Gorgas,  William  C.,  188,  189  *. 

Habits,  and  citizenship,  64;  of  using 
stimulants  and  tobacco,  146,  147; 
good  and  bad,  62  *,  63  *;  of  cool- 
ness and  courage,  67;  of  eating. 


88,  89 ;  of  healthy  living,  11,12*, 
16  *,  17  *   18  *. 

Habit-forming  drugs,  149. 

Hair,  caring  for,  107,  133  *,  134, 
189. 

Hands,  bones  of,  24  *;  structure  of, 
25;  washing,  before  eating,  171, 
219. 

Harvey,  William,  126. 

Head,  a  part  of  the  living  machine, 
22. 

Health,  an  army  of,  203-212;  and 
food,  14,  218;  and  habits  of 
living,  II,  i2*-i6*,  17*,  18*; 
and  your  country,  216;  guarding, 
208,  209;  public,  204-212;  rules 
for,  213-227;  soap  and  water  as 
guardians  of,  170  *. 

Health  crusaders,  224-226;  chores 
of,  225. 

Hearing,  74.    (See  Ear.) 

Heart,  23  *;  function  of,  27;  struc- 
ture of,  121,  122  *;  work  of,  28, 
124,  127. 

Hercules,  story  of,  48,  49  *. 

Hoover,  Herbert  C.,  89  *. 

Hygiene,  definition,  22. 

Infection,  avoiding,  220. 

Inhibition,  61. 

Insects,  and  disease,  166,  181,  189; 

fighting  against  pests,  219. 
Intestines,   23  *;  digestion  in,  95; 

large,  93;  small,  93;  how  to  pre- 
:  vent  diseases  of,  181. 
Iris,  74  *. 

Janet's  argument,  story  of,  2 10-2 11. 
Joints,  function  of,  24;  definition 

Jones,   story  of   John    Paul,    213, 

2 1  A. 


232 


INDEX 


Keller,  Helen,  70-74,  73  *. 
Kidneys,  96,  97. 
Knees,  structure  and  use,  34. 
Knight,  how  a  boy  became,  9,  10  *. 

Larva,  of  fly,  179,  180;  of  mosquito, 

183,  185. 
Larynx,  in  *,  119. 
Lazear,  Jesse,  188. 
Legs,  structure  of,  25;  arrangement 

of  bones  in,  34  *,  35. 
Lens,  74  *,  75. 
Life,  the  most  wonderful  thing  in 

the  world,  20. 
Light,  when  reading  or  sewing,  18, 

78*. 
Lion-Heart,  story  of  Richard  the, 

125-126. 
Liquid,  112. 
Liver,  23  *,  95,  96. 
Lunch,  in  the  morning,  14. 
Lungs,  23  *,  in;  structure  of,  iii- 

112. 

Maggot.    (See  Larva.) 

Malaria  184,  185,  187. 

Measles,  and  microbes,  159;  signs 
of,  196;  story  of  why  Alfred  did 
not  have,  199-200  *. 

Medicines,  taking,  149,  220. 

Microbes,  102,  159;  and  tooth  de- 
cay, loi ;  as  friends  and  foes,  161 ; 
fighting  the  microbes  of  disease, 
159,  160,  161;  helpful,  163;  how 
spread,  165,  166;  on  fly's  foot, 
181;  on  skin,  132;  source  of,  164, 
169.    (See  Disease  Germs.) 

Microscope,  102. 

Milk,  a  good  food,  84;  danger  from, 
174,  176-177;  pasteurization  of, 
176,  177. 

Mont  St.  Michel,  story  of,  64,  65, 
66  *,  67. 


Mosquito,  and  malaria,  184,  185  *; 

and  yellow  fever,   188;   control 

of,  186,  187  *;  danger  from,  184; 

fighting  against,  1 89-191;  habits 

of,  183. 
Motto  of  American  boy  or  girl, 

215  *. 
Mouth,  23;  digestive  juices  in,  93; 

guarding  against  letting  germs 

into,  172,  173*,  219. 
Muscles,   biceps,   44;   exercise  of, 

216;  function  of,  25;  how  they 

work,  44  *, 

Nails,  keeping  clean,  133. 

Near-sightedness,  75. 

Nerves,  carriers  of  messages,   28, 

56. 
Nervous  system,  function  of,  28. 
Nose,  function  of,  23;  letting  germs 

into,  174. 
Nuisances,  public,  203. 
Nurse,  Public  Health,  209-210. 

Old  people,  159;  helping,  2,Z,  52, 

63*. 
Organs,  of  respiration,  27,  iio-iii, 

118;   of   speech,    119;   principal 

parts  of  body,  23  *,  29. 
Outdoor  life,  138. 
Oxygen,  112,  113  *;  in  blood,  124; 

in  old  wells  and  cesspools,  116; 

necessity  of,  26;  the  good  fairy, 

114. 

Pain,  cause  of,  57. 

Panama  Canal,  186,  187. 

Pancreas,  95. 

Pasteur,  Louis,  160  *,  161. 

Pasteurization  of  milk,  176,  177. 

Pelvis,  function  of,  32. 

Perspiration,  129,  132. 


INDEX 


233 


Play,  indoor,  17;  outdoor,  3,  5,  16, 

17*,  139- 
Pneumonia,  119. 
Poisons,  222;  in  food,  218,  219. 
Prince  and  robber  children,  story 

of,  40,  41  *. 
Protein,  83. 
Pulse,  125. 
Pupa,  180,  181,  184. 
Pupil,  74. 

Quarrel,  story  of  the  brushes',  105, 
106  *,  107. 

Reed,  Walter,  187,  188. 
Reflex  action,  59,  60  *. 
Respiration,   iii;   object  of,    114, 

115;  organs  of,  27. 
Rest,  and  health,  218;  and  sleep,  67. 
Retina,  74  *,  75- 
Ribs,  32. 
Richard  the  Lion  Heart,  story  of, 

125-126. 
Roots  of  teeth,  loi  *. 

Safety  First,  223-225. 

Scarlet  fever,  and  microbes,  159; 

signs  of,  196. 
Scurvy,  85  *. 

Sense  organs,  74;  heat  and  cold,  74. 
Sera,  206. 

Servants,  story  of  our  unseen,  46. 
Serving  our  country,   52,   87,   88, 

153,   202;  rules  for  keeping  fit 

for,  214,  215,  216,  217. 
Sewage,  204. 
Sewers,  204.    s 
Sight,  74. 

Skeleton,  25;  general  plan  of,  32  *. 
Skin,  as  organ  of  excretion,  132; 

care  of,   133;  function  of,   132; 


how  to  keep  healthy,  217;  mi- 
crobes on,  132. 

Smell,  74. 

Snow  Fairies  and  the  Mountain 
Elves,  story  of  the,  139-141. 

Soap,  as  guardian  of  health,  170  *. 

Solid  substance,  112. 

Sore  throat,  119. 

Speech,  organs  of,  119. 

Spinal  cord,  58. 

Stimulants,  146,  147. 

Stomach,  23  *,  93;  digestion  in,  94; 
size  of  a  child's,  93  *. 

Street  accidents,  safety  from,  223  *. 

Strong  men,  needed,  51  *. 

Study,  how  to,  16  *. 

Sweat  glands,  129,  132. 

Swim,  learn  to,  216,  217  *. 

Taste,  74. 

Tea  and  coffee,  146,  147. 

Team  play  and  work,  17. 

Teeth,  brushing  the,  12,  18,  104; 
decay  of,  102-104;  dental  care  of, 
107,  108;  diseases  of,  102;  kinds 
of,  99;  structure  of,  loi;  tem- 
porary and  permanent,  100  *. 

Tell,  story  of  William,  143,  145  *, 

Temperature,  regulation  of  body, 
127-129. 

Tendons,  definition  and  use  of,  45. 

Throat,  23. 

Tobacco,  147,  148  *;  effect  on  cir- 
culation, 130;  effect  on  nerves 
and  brains,  148. 

Tongue,  function  of,  23. 

Tonsilitis,  119. 

Tonsils,  119. 

Toothbrush,  how  to  use,  104  *;  im- 
portance of,  107. 

Touch,  sense  of,  74. 

Training,  keeping  in,  52. 


234 


INDEX 


Troy,  the  wooden  horse  of,  i68. 

Trunk,  22,  32. 

Tuberculosis,  and  milk,  176;  cause 

of,  159,  207;  symptoms  of,  207; 

war  against,  206,  209  *. 

Ulysses,  168. 

United  States  Public  Health  Serv- 
ice, 202. 
Urine,  97. 

Vaccines,  206. 

Veins,  function  of,  121. 

Ventilation,  139;  methods  of,  137, 

138*. 
Vocal  cords,  119. 


Wastes  of  the  body,  96. 

Water,   accidents   in,    217  *,    224; 

as    guardian    of    health,    170*; 

danger  from  polluted,  174. 
Water  supply,  204,  205  *. 
Well,  story  of  the  old,  115,  116  *. 
Whooping  cough,  159,  195. 
Windpipe,  23  *,  iii  *. 
Wine,  150,  153. 
Wires,  accidents  from,  224. 
Wooden  horse  of  Troy,  story  of, 

168. 
Work,  how  to,  16  *, 
Wounds,  care  of,  177,  178. 

Yellow  fever,  187. 


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